2010 marked the 10th Word Festival and as part of the celebrations to mark the anniversary Scottish Opera’s Five:15 strand, featuring five new 15-minute operas by Scottish composers and librettists, premiered for the first time in Aberdeen.
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She has been responsible for lavish patronage of the Edinburgh International Festival, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Opera and the National Galleries of Scotland.
Woolfenden has conducted three productions with the Scottish Opera, as well as the first British productions of Nielsen's Saul and David, Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans and Liszt's Don Sanche.
The libretto was commissioned by Scottish Opera, and first used in Glasgow on 23 October 1985, in a performance conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson and directed by Graham Vick, with production design by Russell Craig.
Other early operatic appearances were Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Scottish Opera, and both Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier for English National Opera.
Her success in this and in her Scottish Opera roles attracted the attention of Herbert von Karajan, who invited her to appear at the Salzburg Festival the following year.
British engagements also include Bartolo in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for Opera North and Garsington Opera; Collatinus in Britten's Rape of Lucretia at Buxton Festival; and Sacristan (Tosca), Bosun (Billy Budd), Benedict (La Vie Parisienne) and Masetto (Don Giovanni) for Scottish Opera.
There exists a live recording of Scottish Opera's 1971 Rosenkavalier sung in English, with Dernesch as the Marschallin, Dame Janet Baker as Octavian and Elizabeth Harwood as Sophie, from the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, conducted by Alexander Gibson.
The pair met while working on Scottish Opera's production of Hänsel und Gretel in 2011/12, and were married at Sagadi Manor in Estonia in August 2013.