Suzannah Clarke

Suzannah Clarke (born 1970) is a British opera singer and politician. In 2003, she became the first British singer to perform in Pyongyang, North Korea, and was invited back several times. In addition, she has performed anthems at football matches and international tournaments such as the UEFA Euro 1996 at Wembley Stadium. She was previously the London regional manager for the National Society of Epilepsy. Her mother Sheelagh Clarke was a councillor and deputy leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council. Her great-grandfather was the last official rat catcher at ICI Billingham. Growing up, she was a supporter of Middlesbrough F.C. She was a member of the Labour Party since the 1990s. Clarke then studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. She was a principal soprano with the English National Opera, and performed for one season at La Scala in Milan. She has called it the most emotional performance of her career. In 2003, she sang the Slovakian national anthem.

Concerts in North Korea In 2002, Clarke was appointed a cultural ambassador for Middlesbrough. Clarke greeted the former players in Korean and sung a Korean friendship song. Her repertoire for the trip included opera pieces as well as musical theatre songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and traditional Northumbrian songs.

In 2007, Clarke's performance in front of a theatre audience of 2,000 was due to be broadcast to 23 million people on North Korea's only television station. Another Times review of a European Chamber Opera production of L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti at Holland Park said, "The coy and capricious Adina is also strongly cast: Suzannah Clarke really laughs her way through Donizetti's music".

In a 2004 review of her performance at the Bord Gis Opera Gala at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, The Irish Times said: "British soprano Suzannah Clarke has a well-schooled voice that holds a smooth line and tackles light coloratura with ease. She also displayed theatrical awareness in arias and duets from Faust, Lucia di Lammermoor and Rigoletto where she put across the characters' vulnerability admirably."

Concert production In the noughties, Clarke chaired a project to bring the last night of The BBC Proms to North East England. In 2007, her three-year project culminated in a Proms in the Park concert in Middlesbrough. Clarke worked on organising a concert tour for the North Korea State Symphony Orchestra to visit the United Kingdom, and after years of planning, the orchestra was scheduled to perform at the Royal Festival Hall in London and in Middlesbrough on 17 and 19 September 2008. However, on 4 September, The Korea Times reported that the tour had been postponed indefinitely after the English bank retracted its sponsorship at the last minute due to the 2008 credit crunch. That year, she was involved in the "Yes for the North East" campaign in the 2004 North East England devolution referendum, She was re-elected in 2022 and 2026.

Other projects Clarke has served on the boards of many organisations such as the South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust, and was a patron of the trust's Healing Arts Project.

Heavy Metal Opera Choir In the noughties, Clarke tutored the Heavy Metal Opera Choir, a men's choir made up of steelworkers from Corus in Redcar. The choir was formed when Clarke realised she needed a choir to sing with her in Blaze!, a 2004 community opera about the railway heritage of Darlington, performed on a station platform at the railway museum there.

Clarke and the eight-man choir from Redcar also performed "The Red Flag" and "Jerusalem" at the annual Labour Party Conference in Brighton in 2004.

Tutu Peace Garden Clarke founded the Tutu Peace Garden in Chinbrook Meadows Park in Lewisham, London, honouring South African bishop and anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu, which Tutu himself opened during a ceremony in 2009. She came up with the idea after confirming with the South African High Commission that in the 1970s, Tutu and his family had lived in her house in Lewisham, and inviting Tutu to tea and cakes. They have two daughters. She did not go public about her condition for several years, concerned about the impact on her career. She has worked as a regional manager for the National Society for Epilepsy.