Born in Bedford, Rachel Nicholls was awarded Second Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Competition. She has a huge repertoire ranging from J. S. Bach and Handel to Schoenberg and Errollyn Wallen. She made her début at London’s Royal Opera as Third Flowermaiden Parsifal, returning as Pepik The Cunning Little Vixen, EchoAriadne auf Naxos and Prilepa The Queen of Spades and other operatic engagements have included Marzelline Fidelio for London Lyric Opera, Joan For You for Music Theatre Wales, Wendy Peter Pan (Bernstein) at the Festival Rota dos Monumentos, Portugal, First Woman – First Fury The Mask of Orpheus: The Arches at the BBC Proms, First Niece Peter Grimes, JeniferThe Midsummer Marriage and Shepherd Tannhäuser at the St Endellion Festival, Philippa Babette’s Feast at the Linbury Studio Theatre,Frasquita Carmen, Tatyana Eugene Onegin and Flora The Knot Garden for Scottish Opera, the title role in Erismena, Ginevra Ariodante andElisa Tolomeo for English Touring Opera, Armida Rinaldo at the Edinburgh Festival 2009 (also in Tokyo), Miss Schlesen Satyagraha for English National Opera, Dorinda Orlando for the Atelier Lyrique, Tourcoing, Theophano Ottone and Metella Silla at the London Handel Festival, Handel’s Susanna for The Early Opera Company, Nerone L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the New Theatre, Tokyo, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for Longborough Festival Opera, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni for Mid Wales Opera, Elettra Idomeneo for New Sussex Opera, Junon Platée for T.C.C. Productions, Lisbon, and Jessie Mahagonny Songspiel  at the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte, Montepulciano.

Rachel Nicholls made her international début singing Messiah under the direction of Sir David Willcocks in Halle and recent concert highlights have included Jauchzet Gott and Haydn Il ritorno di Tobia with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London and Minneapolis, Bach B Minor Mass with Bach Collegium Japan at Carnegie Hall, Judas Maccabaeus at the Gdansk Music Festival, Szymanowski Stabat Mater for Huddersfield Choral Society, an Opera Gala with the Mikkeli City Orchestra and La Folle Journée in Tokyo. Other concert appearances include performances with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Darmstadt Hofkapelle, Florilegium, the Hanover Band, the London Handel Players, the London Mozart Players, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of St John’s, Le Parlement de Musique, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, as well as at the Brighton, Chelsea, Fishguard, London Handel and Three Choirs Festivals.

Conductors with whom she has worked in opera and concert include Martyn Brabbins, Stephen Cleobury, Thomas Dausgaard, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Colin Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Martin Gester, Richard Hickox, Adrian Leaper, Sir Roger Norrington (she was featured soloist for his 75th Birthday Concert with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at London’s Royal Festival Hall), Sir Simon Rattle, Steven Sloane and Masaaki Suzuki. Her broadcasts include the Christmas Oratorio with Le Parlement de Musique, Jauchzet Gott and Il ritorno di Tobiawith the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Dvorak Stabat Mater with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Dorinda Orlando with La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy for Radio France and Sally Flashmob - The Opera, Schoenberg Quartet No. 2 with the Quatuor Parisii, In Tune andSouth Pacific for the BBC. She has appeared in recital at the Wigmore Hall, and her recordings include B Minor Mass and Cantatas – Volume 42(BIS), For You (Signum), Dorinda Orlando (K617), Metella Silla (Somm), Hummel Mass in D Minor (Chandos), two volumes of Music by Cecilia McDowall (Dutton) and Paul Spicer’s Easter Oratorio (Birmingham Bach Choir).

Currently studying with Dame Anne Evans, she was highly praised for her debut as Helmwige Die Walküre at the Longborough Festival, being picked by The Sunday Times as “a future Brünnhilde”. Other recent and current highlights include Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Helmwige Die Walküre and Bünnhilde Götterdämmerung for Longborough Festival Opera, Sieglinde Die Walküre at the St Endellion Festival with Susan Bullock conducted by Martyn Brabbins, the B Minor Mass, Jauchzet Gott, the St Matthew Passion and Messiah on tour with Bach Collegium Japan in Japan and the USA, Bach Magnificat at the Three Choirs, Gloucester, and St Endellion Festivals, the St Matthew Passion, Messiah, Mozart Requiem and Pergolesi Stabat Mater on extended tours with the Bach Choir and Orchestra of the Netherlands (including performances at the Concertgebouw), Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and Verdi Requiem for the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozart Requiem with the Bach Choir, Schumann Mass in C with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and The Four Seasons by Candlelight 2010 Tour for Raymond Gubbay Ltd.