Caroline Jaya-Ratnam began her fledgling music career in Middlesbrough UK where she lived aged 3-9. She was a frequent winner in local music festivals and, at the tender age of 9, sang solo on Radio Cleveland as winner of her song class!

Caroline read music at Cambridge University holding an Instrumental Award and a Choral Exhibition and playing the violin in the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra (CUCO). She completed her Masters Degree and Professional Performance Diploma in solo piano and was later appointed the Geoffrey Parsons Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music.

TV and Radio appearances
Caroline is in particular demand as an accompanist and accompanied Bryn Terfel on the Alan Titchmarsh and Good Morning Shows (Dec 2010) on TV. She also accompanied Danielle de Niese (Aug 2010) on the Andrew Marr show, the launch of the Classical Brit Awards and at the opening of the Grace Kelly Exhibition at the V & A Museum in London. She has also accompanied Rolando Villazon on the Andrew Marr show (Feb 2010). Caroline could be glimpsed on the 2010 and 2011 ITV show ‘Popstar to Opera Star’ as one of the pianists in the mentor coaching sessions with Katherine Jenkins and Rolando Villazon.
She was interviewed twice on Radio 3s ‘In Tune’, with Sean Rafferty, and performed numerous times (between 2005 & 2023) on the show with; violinists Charlie Siem (with whom in July 2010 she recorded a CD licensed to Warner Classics), Fanny Clamagirand (winner of the International Kreisler competition), Alan Oke (tenor) for ENO, Brindley Sherratt (bass) Nadine Benjamin (soprano) and members of the ‘Lost in the Stars’ cast with Charles Hazlewood.
She appeared on BBC television and Radio 3 accompanying instrumentalists in the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2000 and 2004 competitions as well as Belgian Radio and television in May 2005 accompanying in the Queen Elizabeth competition.

Caroline was the featured piano soloist on the soundtrack of the film Wer Liebe Verspricht released on ZDF on Easter Monday 2008.

Her Proms appearances (from 2009 to the present) at the Royal Albert Hall have included: performances within the LSO (Gergiev), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Oramo / Bychkov), Sinfonia of London (John Wilson) and the BBC Concert Orchestra (Viennese Prom, Comedy Prom, Human Planet Prom and Evolution Prom)

 

Other performances

National competition successes include the accompanists' prizes in: the 'Great Elm Vocal Awards', 'Performing Australian Music' competition, 'Haverhill SInfonia Soloists Competition', the John Ireland and Sir Arthur Bliss prizes for song accompaniment and Sir Henry Richardson Award.

Caroline has performed internationally as far as New Zealand and her London appearances have included duo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the Purcell Room. Her concerto performances include Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto in G minor and Mozart's Concerto K.456 which she directed. She has worked with several national competition winners such as Rafal Payne (former BBC Young Musician of the Year winner), performing alongside him on several occasions and in a private lesson with the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin.

 

Caroline was the on-stage pianist in English National Opera's 2015 production of Tchaikovsky's 'Queen of Spades' - in full costume (!) with directorial instructions..'be embarrassingly extrovert', She enjoyed every moment of it!

Following a six month contract at the English National Opera in 2007, Caroline has been invited back several times as a freelance repetiteur on the music staff at ENO working with conductors such as Ed Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth and Richard Hickox and artists including Sir John Tomlinson, Dame Ann Murray, Henry Goodman, Alfie Boe and Michael Ball on operas which include: The Marriage of Figaro, Aida, Magic Flute, Barber of Seville, Satyagraha, Parsifal, Two Boys and other works - The Gondoliers, On the Town and Kismet. Caroline is also a freelance rep for Glyndebourne.

In June 2009 she was the repetiteur for conductor Charles Hazlewood on Kurt Weill’s ‘Lost in the Stars’ performed and broadcast on BBC Radio from the Queen Elizabeth Hall and was also the repetiteur for Hazlewood on Wil Gregory’s opera ‘Piccard in Space’ (March 2011).

In July 2010 Caroline was the repetiteur for Marin Alsop and Mary King in the Southbank Centre’s performance of Bernstein’s Mass.

She was Director of Music at St. Matthews Church in Croydon (06-08) and has been a Vocal Repertoire Coach on staff at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama since 2004.

 

Singer and Violinist 

 

Caroline joined Synergy Vocals in 2011 particularly hired to sing very high soprano parts in the music of Steve Reich. WIth them she has performed Tehillim, Music for 18 Musicians, You are Variations and Desert Music on the Continent, in America, Japan and the UK with personal praise from the composer himself!

An accomplished violinist, she won several conservatoire places to study as both a pianist and violinist at the age of seventeen, going on to perform as the soloist in several violin concertos whilst at school, university and beyond (Bruch Gm, Mendelssohn Em, Bach E major, Saint-Saens - Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso).

Nov 2023 - April 2024 - UK - MD/Pianist for 'DeathTrap' tour - Ballet Rambert

 

2nd August 2025 - Prom - 'Viennese Prom', BBC Concert Orchestra (Anna-Maria Helsing)

8th August 2025 - Prom - with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Josep Pons)

 

7th Sept 2025 - Prom - with the RPO (Vasily Petrenko)

 

September 2025 - CHINA - Duo recital tour with Steve Bryant

                                           (Leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra)