Biography

Amy J Payne is a mezzo-soprano, actor, stage director, teacher, workshop leader and writer based in Leeds, UK.

Originally from South Devon, Amy trained at Guildhall School of Music & Drama where she was awarded the English Song Prize. She is also a Samling Scholar and holds a BA (Hons) in French & German from King’s College, London, where she was a choral scholar.

Described by Bachtrack in 2023 as “one of the best comprimarios on the circuit”, Amy has worked with companies across the UK including: Opera Holland Park, Opera North, Scottish Opera, English Touring Opera, Garsington Opera, Mid Wales Opera, Buxton International Festival, Iford Arts, D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, Charles Court Opera, Tete a Tete, Northern Opera Group and Birmingham Opera Company.

Opera performing highlights in 25/26 included: her house and role debut at Welsh National Opera as The Old Woman in Candide; a return to Opera North as June Spoon in David Fennessy’s Pass the Spoon at the Howard Assembly Room. She also made her debuts in Italy as Mrs Grose in The Turn of the Screw at Teatro di Verdi, Pisa and for Nederlandse Reisopera as Petrovna in the world premiere of To Die For [a comedy] by Elena Langer. Amy’s 25/26 season was completed by her opera debut at Buxton International Festival, returning to the role of Annina in a new production of La traviata and reprising the role of Olga in a revival of Scottish Opera’s 2025 production of The Merry Widow. In 26/27, Amy makes her debut at English National Opera in a revival of Elena Langer’s To Die For in co-production with Nederlandse Reisopera and returns to Opera Holland Park as Ruth in a new production of The Pirates of Penzance.

Amy is enjoying a growing reputation as a director of staged opera after making her debut as part of the ETO Perform programme in 23/24. Amy returned to this role in 24/25 and was delighted to assist both Molly Farley (Little Terror) and Victoria Briggs (The Vanishing Forest) both for English Touring Opera. Amy was thrilled to be the Revival Director for Welsh National Opera’s production of The Vanishing Forest in Spring/Summer 2026. In Autumn 26, Amy is working with the Opera North Youth Company as a Movement Director for their performances at Leeds Light Night and is delighted to announce she will be directing Rossini’s La gazetta for Buxton International Festival in 2027.

Concert work in 26/27 includes a return to Charles Court Opera’s Around the G&S World in 80 Minutes at Amersham Festival after previous seasons’ successes at Newbury Spring and Lichfield Festivals and the Sorceress in a semi-staged Dido & Aeneas for Chelsea History Festival. Amy is also delighted to be joining Sinfonia of Leeds in 2027 to perform Elgar’s Sea Pictures once again with conductor, Oliver Rundell, after first working together on this iconic song cycle in the inaugural concert of the Opera North Youth Orchestra in 2022. Recent recital work includes her debut for Leeds Lieder in The Diary of One who Disappeared (Janacek) with tenor Nicky Spence, accompanied by Joseph Middleton and her 2025 debut for Opera North’s Kirklees Concert Season and in a mixed programme of Parisian music with Philip Voldman (piano), Susannah Simmons (violin) and the Jazz Manouche ensemble, Boba Trio.

She has collaborated with composers creating new work for the voice including Anne Chmelewsky (The Looking Glass, Pygmalion 2.0), Anna Pool (Mother Trucker), Laura Bowler (Women Conduct), Luca Tieppo (Suggestions of Love), Daniel Saleeb (The Promise), Omar Shahryar (Sweeper of Dreams, The Great Stink) and Georgia Barnes (From Mumsnet, with Love).

Alongside composer and performer Anna Pool and music director, Oliver Rundell, Amy has curated a cabaret of music by female songwriters, Frau, That’s What I Call Music!, which was programmed by Spitalfields Festival, Leeds Lit Fest and English Touring Opera in 2024. In 2025 Frau appeared at the Lichfield Festival and the Colchester Fringe Festival. Frau returns in December 2026 at North of England Centre for Music and Arts. Following Frau’s success at Lichfield, Amy was commissioned by the festival to create a new cabaret based on the songs of the comedian, Victoria Wood. Loose Chippings had its premiere performances at this year’s Lichfield Festival and at North of England Centre for Music and Arts. Loose Chippings will return in 2027 at several venues across England, including a London residency.

Alongside her opera, concert and cabaret work, Amy has an established reputation as an actor in theatre, musical theatre and film. Credits include: Duet for One Voice (Cocteau) and Petra, A Little Night Music (Sondheim), both at Leeds Playhouse. In 2023, she delivered two monologues and songs with The Sunday Boys at The Lowry in Salford in We’ll Be Here Tomorrow, an evening highlighting the experience of those living with HIV and AIDS and performed and wrote material for Ms Midlife at The Bishopsgate Institute, devised by Catrine Kirkman and directed by Mojisola Kareem-Elufowoju (Utopia Theatre). After making her debut in 2023 in London’s West End in the Offie-winning (Best Panto Production) The Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime at Jermyn Street Theatre, Amy returned in 2024 as a performer and writer on Napoleon: Un petit pantomime, both for Charles Court Opera, with whom she has enjoyed a working relationship across operetta, opera and pantomime for well over a decade. In Autumn 26, Amy will be filming a new animated film of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with 1927 Theatre.

Amy works regularly both as a workshop deviser and facilitator for various community groups, choirs and opera companies nationwide, including Opera North and English Touring Opera. She is equally at home working with adults or children and runs a private vocal teaching practice from her home in Leeds.