British mezzo-soprano Esme Bronwen-Smith won First Prize at The 2022 Kathleen Ferrier Awards. She studies with Rosa Mannion and trained at the Royal College of Music where she won both the 2021 Lies Askonas Competition and the 2020 Lieder Competition.

Esme has performed a variety of theatrical and operatic roles including Cherubino - Le Nozze di Figaro (Glyndebourne Festival cover and HGO), Nerone - Agrippina (English Touring Opera), Marchesa Melibea- Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims (ETO), Irene - Theodora (St Pauls Sinfonia) and Smeton - Anna Bolena (cover, Longborough Opera Festival).

​In recital, she has sung for song festivals such as Oxford Lieder and Leeds Lieder as a 2020/21 Leeds Lieder Young Artist, where she won the 2021 Leeds Lieder Young Artist/ Schubert Institute UK Song Prize.

​Esme was a member of the Gary Condès Acting studio and performed the role of 'The Devil' in Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, a collaboration project with Sir Thomas Allen, RCM and the Central School of Ballet.

Theatre and film have always featured heavily in her career; she has worked on a variety of projects including Frankenstein at the National Theatre (2010), Trance (2013), Trainspotting 2 (2017) and a collaboration with Underworld and Iggy Pop (Teatime Dub Encounters, 2018) in which The Guardian reviewed her voice as ‘Sublime’.