Born in Nottingham (United Kingdom), she studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal Northern College of Music, and the London Opera Studio. In 2001, she joined the Deutsches National Theater in Weimar, acquiring an extensive repertoire: Mimì (La Bohème), Elettra (Idomeneo), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), Elisabetta (Don Carlo), Leonora (Il trovatore and Fidelio), Senta (Der fliegende Holländer), Abigaille (Nabucco), Tosca, Turandot, and Elektra.
Her international prominence grew with her performance as Kaiserin in Die Frau ohne Schatten in 2006, leading to engagements in Hamburg, Budapest, Aalto Theater Essen, Semperoper Dresden, Copenhagen, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Helsinki, and Nice.
Starting in 2007, she has portrayed Brünnhilde in complete cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen performed in Weimar, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Berlin, Helsinki, Tokyo, Budapest, Bucharest, Shanghai, and the Bayreuth Festival, under the direction of Kirill Petrenko, Simone Young, Hartmut Haenchen, Adam Fischer, Marek Janowski, and Daniel Barenboim.
She made her debut at the Liceu in the 2013/14 season with Die Walküre and returned with Siegfried (2014/15).