Soprano Catherine Bott studied at the Guildhall and then spent two years singing everything from Bach to Berio with the Swingles before leaving to begin her solo career.

She is recognised as a virtuoso of early music: among her many recordings in this field are Bach's St. John Passion with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppaea with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Academy of Ancient Music.

In contrast, she is much in demand by contemporary composers and has premiered and recorded works by Jonathan Dove, Michael Nyman and Bo Holten. Concerts this season include Brahms's German Requiem in Liverpool, Tippett's The Heart's Assurance in Glasgow for BBC Radio 3 and Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony with Stephen Cleobury and CUMS In Cambridge and Oxford.

For this Nelson year, she is giving numerous performances of her specially-devised entertainment based on Lady Hamilton's Songbooks, and on Trafalgar Day itself (October 21) she will sing in the world premiere of a Nelsonian cantata commissioned from Errollyn Wallen by BBC Radio 3. Her latest recital CD on Hyperion is the cabaret London Pride, with pianist David Owen Norris.

Catherine Bott presents The Early Music Show on BBC Radio 3 and is a regular contributor to R4's Saturday Review.