The mezzo-soprano Alison Browner was born in Dublin and studied musicology there at Trinity College at the same time as studies in violin and singing at the College of Music. A DAAD scholarship then took her to the Hamburg Musikhochschule and, two years later her diploma in Lieder and concert performance. Her career began with the opera studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, with study under Hans Hotter, and Darmstadt State Theatre. From 1987 she was a member of the Mannheim National Theatre, where she won success in the Strauss rôles of the Composer and Octavian, as well as in the principal mezzo rôles in Mozart and Rossini. In 1990 she made her début at Covent Garden as Angelina in La Cenerentola, with successful appearances also at La Monnaie in Brussels, the Flemish Opera in Antwerp and Ghent, Barcelona, Paris, Dublin, Zürich, Stuttgart, Berlin and, not least, at the Salzburg Festival under John Elliot Gardiner. Her career has also brought Lieder and concert performances with distinguished colleagues, with radio, television, and recording engagements.