Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill has established an international career in concert, opera and recital, and regularly sings with Boston, Rotterdam, Seoul and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and London Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras. She has performed under esteemed conductors including James Levine, Yannick Nézet-Séquin, Myung Whun Chung, Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Robin Ticciati and the late Sir Colin Davis. Her Linn recording of Berlioz's Les nuits d'été and La mort de Cléopâtre with Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra was named Gramophone's ‘Recording of the Month'.

Past and future highlights with her regular recital partner Simon Lepper include appearances at the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Kennedy Centre Washington, as well as her New York recital debut at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall and regular recitals live on BBC Radio 3.

In opera, she has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; Deutsche Opera, Berlin; as well as the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, English National Opera and Scottish Opera. Cargill studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, the University of Toronto and the National Opera Studio in London. She was the winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier Award and in 2013 Cargill was invited to be an Associate Artist of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.