I was born on 8 April 1940 and have always maintained that I chose my parents with great care. My father's natural musical ability and my mother's deep love of literature were invaluable as a background for a singer. She taught me how to speak poetry from an early age. I may have chosen my brother too, for Peter also played a vital role in my musical upbringing. We are very different in temperament, and this was useful in our partnership, which we enjoyed for many years. Peter's research into unusual repertoire and our interest in commissioning composers led to some unique programmes. Performing the songs he wrote for me was particularly special: there cannot have been many duos with our inbuilt advantages.

I was encouraged to compete in music festivals at school in Cumbria and in Lytham St Annes, playing the piano and singing, so that I was able to enter the Royal Manchester College of Music (as the RNCM then was) in 1958, taking both as first studies. My inspirational teacher was Dora Gilson, who had taught my aunt Irene in the 1920s. I also joined the BBC Northern Singers under Stephen Wilkinson. My first experience of performing in concerts was in music clubs and with orchestras in the North West, when I was sent from the college and accompanied by either Isobel Flinn or John McCabe, the versatile pianist and composer. I completed my studies in 1963 with GRSM and three diplomas.

That same year I saw a notice of a vacancy in the BBC Singers and applied successfully in time to join them for the Proms season, singing as a first alto. Sitting next to me was the soprano Valerie Heath Davies, who became my life-long teacher and mentor. She advised me to consider leaving the Singers, on the grounds that I was using only a fraction of my vocal ability, and to study in Vienna with her teacher Hans Karg. I remember trying to explain to my anxious father my reasons for abandoning what looked like a job for life to chance my luck in a wider context – I was only twenty-three and full of optimism.

In February 1964 I made my London debut for the Park Lane Group, accompanied by Susan Bradshaw, singing Wolf, McCabe and Britten.