Ian Bostridge
CBE (born 25 December 1964) is an acclaimed English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist. [1]
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IAN BOSTRIDGE TICKETS
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Education
Born in
London, Bostridge studied at
Dulwich College Preparatory School and
Westminster School, where he was a Queen's Scholar, then attended the Universities of
Oxford and
Cambridge, where he read
modern history and received an M.Phil in the
history and philosophy of science. He received his D.Phil from Oxford in 1990, on the significance of
witchcraft in English public life from 1650 to 1750, and was a post-doctoral fellow at
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, publishing an Oxford Historical Monograph, "Witchcraft and its Transformations 1650 to 1750" in 1997, before embarking on a career as a singer. This has been an influential work in the study of the pre-Enlightenment, "achieving that rarest of feats in the scholarly world: taking a well-worn subject and ensuring that it will never be looked at in quite the same way again" (
Noel Malcolm,
TLS)
[2]. In 1991 he won the National Federation of Music Societies Award and from 1992 received support from the
Young Concert Artists Trust.
Career
Bostridge made his
Wigmore Hall debut in 1993; his
Purcell Room debut (an acclaimed
Winterreise
) and his
Aldeburgh Festival debut in 1994; in 1995 he gave his first solo recital in the Wigmore Hall (winning the
Royal Philharmonic Society's Debut Award); in 1996 he gave recitals in
Lyon,
Cologne, London and at the Aldeburgh,
Cheltenham and
Edinburgh Festivals, and in 1997 at the
Alte Oper,
Frankfurt.
On the concert platform he has appeared with the
London Symphony Orchestra under Sir
Colin Davis and
Mstislav Rostropovich, the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Sir
Charles Mackerras, and the City of Birmingham Symphony under Sir
Simon Rattle.
His first solo-featured recording was for
Hyperion Records, a
Britten song recital,
The Red Cockatoo
with
Graham Johnson. His subsequent recording of
Die schöne Müllerin
in Hyperion's Schubert Edition won the
Gramophone's
Solo Vocal Award for 1996; he won the prize again in 1998 for a recording of Schumann Lieder with his regular collaborator, the pianist Julius Drake. An EMI Classics exclusive artist since 1996, he is a ten-time Grammy nominee. His CDs have won most of the major record prizes including Grammy, Edison, Japanese Recording Academy, Brit, Echo Klassik and Deutsche Schallplattenpreis.
Bostridge made his operatic debut in 1994, aged 29, as
Lysander
in
A Midsummer Night's Dream
with the
Australian Opera at the Edinburgh Festival. In 1996 made his acclaimed debut with the
English National Opera, singing his first Tamino (
The Magic Flute
). In 1997 he sang
Quint
in
Deborah Warner's new production of
The Turn of the Screw
under Sir Colin Davis for the
Royal Opera. He has recorded
Flute
(Britten's
A Midsummer Night's Dream
) with Sir
Colin Davis for Philips Classics;
Belmonte
(
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
) with
William Christie for Erato;
Tom Rakewell
(
The Rake's Progress
) under
John Eliot Gardiner for
Deutsche Grammophon (Grammy Award); and Captain Vere (
Billy Budd
) with Daniel Harding. In 2007 he appeared at the ENO in the role of Aschenbach in Britten's
Death in Venice
.
In 1997 he made a film of
Schubert's
Winterreise
for
Channel 4 directed by
David Alden; he has been the subject of a South Bank Show profile documentary on ITV and presented a BBC4 film on
Leoš Janácek. He has written on music for
The Guardian
,
The Times Literary Supplement
,
Opernwelt
,
BBC Music Magazine
,
Opera Now
and the
The Independent
.
Later engagements included recitals in
Paris,
Stockholm,
Lisbon,
Brussels,
Amsterdam and the
Vienna Konzerthaus. In
North America he appeared in recitals in
New York City at the
Frick Collection in 1998 and
Alice Tully Hall in 1999 and made his
Carnegie Hall debut under Sir
Neville Marriner. Also in 1998 he sang
Vasek
in a new production of
The Bartered Bride
under
Bernard Haitink for the Royal Opera and made his debut at the Munich Festival as Nerone (
L'incoronazione di Poppea
) and in recital (
Winterreise
at the
Cuvillés Theatre). In 1999 he made his debut with the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir
Roger Norrington. He works regularly with the pianists
Julius Drake,
Mitsuko Uchida and Covent Garden music director
Antonio Pappano.
In summer 2000, Bostridge gave the fifth annual Edinburgh University Festival Lecture (previous lecturers included George Steiner, Pierre Boulez and Alfred Brendel) entitled "Music and Magic".
In 2004, Bostridge was made
CBE for his services to music. His brother is the Whitbread-shortlisted biographer and critic
Mark Bostridge, whose book "Florence Nightingale: the woman and her legend" was published in the UK in 2008. They are great-grandchildren of John "Tiny" Joyce, a cousin of James Joyce and famous goalkeeper who played for
Tottenham Hotspur before the First World War..
Bostridge is now the music columnist for
Standpoint
magazine, the new monthly publication launched "to celebrate Western civilisation". He also serves on the magazine's advisory board. A collection of his writings on music will be published by
Faber and Faber in Autumn 2010.
Bostridge is married to the writer and literary critic, Dr
Lucasta Miller, author of the classic study published in 2001, "The Brontë Myth". They have a son and a daughter.
Discography
- Adès: The Tempest
with Thomas Adès (EMI Classics, 2009)
- Schubert: Schwanengesang
with Antonio Pappano (EMI Classics, 2009)
- Schubert: The Wanderer: Lieder and Fragments
with Leif Ove Andsnes (EMI Classics, 2008)
- Great Handel
with Harry Bickett (EMI Classics, 2007)
- Schubert: Lieder and Sonata
with Leif Ove Andsnes (EMI Classics, 2007)
- Wolf: Lieder
with Antonio Pappano (EMI Classics, 2006)
- Britten: Les Illuminations, Serenade, Nocturne
with Simon Rattle (EMI Classics, 2005)
- Schubert: 25 Lieder
with Julius Drake (EMI Classics, 2005)
- Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
with Antonio Pappano (EMI Classics, 2005)
- Schubert: die Schöne Müllerin
with Mitsuko Uchida (EMI Classics, 2005)
- Schubert: Lieder and Sonata No.21
with Leif Ove Andsnes (EMI Classics, 2005)
- Schubert: Winterreise
with Leif Ove Andsnes (EMI Classics, 2004)
- Monteverdi: Orfeo
with Emmanuelle Haïm (Virgin Classics, 2004)
- Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
with Emmanuelle Haïm (Virgin Classics, 2003)
- Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge
with Bernard Haitink (EMI Classics, 2003)
- Schubert: Lieder and Sonata D850
with Leif Ove Andsnes (EMI Classics, 2003)
- Mozart: Idomeneo
with Charles Mackerras (EMI Classics, 2002)
- Britten : Canticles & Folksongs
with Julius Drake (Virgin Classics, 2002)
- Britten : Turn of the Screw
with Daniel Harding (Virgin Classics, 2002)
- The Songs of Robert Schumann, Vol.7
with Dorothea Röschmann and Graham Johnson (Hyperion, 2002)
- The Noël Coward Songbook
with Jeffrey Tate (EMI Classics, 2002)
- Schubert: Lieder volume II
with Julius Drake (EMI Classics, 2001)
- Henze: Songs
with Julius Drake (EMI Classics, 2001)
- Bach: Cantatas and Arias
with Fabio Biondi (Virgin Classics, 2000)
- Handel: L'allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato
with John Nelson (Virgin Classics, 2000)
- The English Songbook
with Julius Drake (EMI Classics, 1999)
- Schumann: Liederkreis & Dichterliebe etc.
with Julius Drake (EMI Classics, 1998)
- Schubert: Lieder volume I
with Julius Drake (EMI Classics, 1998)
- Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin
(Schubert Edition, Vol.25) with Graham Johnson and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Hyperion, 1996)
- Britten: The Red Cockatoo & Other Songs
with Graham Johnson (Hyperion, 1995)
- Nyman: Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs
with Dominique Debart (Argo, 1995)
- Bach: St. Matthew Passion (Evangelist)
with Philippe Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi, 1999)
References
- Desert Island Discs featuring Ian Bostridge
- http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25362-1955464,00.html