Biography

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

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 season highlights in 24/25 included: Bobylikha The Snow Maiden, Mezzo-Soprano Soloist, Do not take my story for a fairy-tale, both for ETO. She also returned to both Scottish Opera and Opera Holland Park as Olga in a new co-production with D’Oyly Carte Opera Company of The Merry Widow. Summer 2025 saw Amy return to The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company as Ruth in a new production of The Pirates of Penzance at The International G&S Festival at Buxton Opera House. In 25/26, Amy is delighted to be making both her house and role debut at Welsh National Opera as The Old Woman in Candide, followed by a return to Opera North as June Spoon in David Fennessy’s Pass the Spoon at the Howard Assembly Room. She also makes 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 is 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. 

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.

In 2022 Amy sang Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Opera North Youth Orchestra in their inaugural concert and in 2020 she made her debut for Leeds Lieder in The Diary of One who Disappeared (Janacek) with tenor Nicky Spence, accompanied by Joseph Middleton. Last season, she made her debut in Opera North’s Kirklees Concert Season and at Howard Assembly Room in a mixed programme of Parisian music with Philip Voldman (piano), Susannah Simmons (violin) and the Jazz Manouche ensemble, Boba Trio.

Alongside composer and performer Anna Pool and musical 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 appears at The Lichfield Festival and the Colchester Fringe Festival.

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 her opera and concert work, Amy has an established reputation as an actor and musical theatre performer. 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. 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 last season in 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.

After making her directorial debut as part of the ETO Perform programme in 23/24, Amy returned to this role in 24/25 and was delighted to assist Victoria Briggs directing The Vanishing Forest in Spring 2025, a production which has been nominated for 4 Fringe Theatre Awards. Amy returns to ETO as an Assistant Director this Autumn, on Little Terror, an opera for Learning Disabled audiences.

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.