Biographies

Ian Bostridge

Ian Bostridge’s international recital career has taken him to the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, St Petersburg, Aldeburgh and Schwarzenberg

Schubertiade Festivals and to the main stages of Carnegie Hall and the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. He has held artistic residencies at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade (2003 / 04), the Barbican, London (2008), the Luxembourg Philharmonie (2010 / 11), the Wigmore Hall (2011 / 12) and Hamburg Laeiszhalle (2012 / 13). Ian has also participated in a Carte-Blanche series with Thomas Quasthoff at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw (2004 / 05) and a Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall (2005 / 06). In the 18 / 19 season Ian undertook an auspicious Artistic Residency with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra: the first of its kind for the ensemble.

His recordings have won all the major international record prizes and been nominated for 15 Grammys. His recording for Pentatone of Schubert’s Winterreise with Thomas Adès won the

Vocal Recording of the Year 2020 in the International Classical Music Awards. Other recordings include Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with Graham Johnson (Gramophone Award 1996), Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress) with Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Grammy Award, 1999), and Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) with William Christie. Under his exclusive contract with Warner Classics, recordings included Schubert and Schumann Lieder (Gramophone Award 1998), The English Songbook and Henze Lieder with Julius Drake, Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers with Daniel Harding, Mozart’s Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras, Janáček’s The Diary of One who Disappeared with Thomas Adès, Schubert with Leif Ove Andsnes, Mitsuko Uchida and Sir Antonio Pappano, Noel Coward with Jeffrey Tate, Britten Orchestral cycles with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, Wolf with Pappano, Bach cantatas with Fabio Biondi, Handel arias with Harry Bicket, Britten Canticles and both Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (Gramophone Award, 2003) and Billy Budd (Grammy Award, 2010), Adès’s The Tempest (Gramophone Award 2010) and Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Recent recordings include Respighi Songs and Die schöne Mullerin with Saskia Giorgini for Pentatone, Shakespeare songs (Grammy Award, 2017) and Requiem: The Pity of War with Pappano for Warner Classics, as well as Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Debussy’s Le Livre de Baudelaire arr. John Adams with Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

He has worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago, Boston, London and BBC Symphony orchestras, the London, New

York, Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras and the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam under Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and Donald Runnicles. He sang the world premiere of Henze’s Opfergang with the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome under Pappano.

His operatic appearances have included Aschenbach (Death in Venice) for the Deutsche Oper, Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw) for the Teatro alla Scala, Handel’s Jeptha for Opéra National de Paris, Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Opera Australia and at the Edinburgh Festival, Nerone (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Tom Rakewell and Male Choru (The Rape of Lucretia) for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) for the Wiener Staatsoper, Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Aschenbach (Death in Venice) and Jupiter (Semele) for the English National Opera, Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and Caliban (The Tempest) for the Royal Opera House and Madwoman / Curlew River in the Netia Jones’s staging for the London Barbican which was also seen in New York and on the west coast of America.

Recent notable events have included the War Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Vladimir Jurowski, the Boston Symphony Orchestra cond. Pappano and with the TonhalleOrchester Zürich cond. Kent Nagano, Les Illuminations with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra cond. Andris Nelsons, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra della Toscana, Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with the Seattle Symphony cond. Ludovic Morlot, Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris cond. Lars Vogt and Barcelona Symphony cond.

Marta Gardolińska and Winterreise with Pappano at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Elbphilhmarmonie and Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin, and with Thomas Adès for Auditori de Barcelona. Other concert appearances have included European tours with Europa Galante of Monteverdi’s Orfeo and The Seasons with the Orchestra of 18th century, a European recital tour including the MITO and Verbier festivals with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau of his composition for Ian, The Folly of Desire, a world premiere of a new commission by James MacMillan with the London Symphony Orchestra for the WW1 centenary, recordings of the major Schubert song cycles live at the Wigmore Hall with pianists Lars Vogt and Thomas Adès.

His book Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession (The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, 2016) was published by Faber and Faber in the UK and Knopf in the USA in 2014. In the 20 / 21 season

Ian gave a lecture series for the University of Chicago and took up the position of Visiting Professor at the Munich Hochschule für Musik und Theater.

He was a fellow in history at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1992 – 5) and in 2001 was elected an honorary fellow of the college. In 2003 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the University of St Andrews and in 2010 he was made an honorary fellow of St John’s College Oxford. He was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honours. In 2014 he was Humanitas Professor of Classical Music at the University of Oxford.

Ian appears this season as Renaud (Armide) for Opéra Comique and undertakes a tour of St Matthew Passion with Les Talens Lyriques, both cond. Rousset. His multitude of concert performances include Zender’s Winterreise with Pappano at La Monnaie, War Requiem with San Francisco Symphony cond. Jordan and with Sinfonica di Milano cond. Trevino,

Les Illuminations at the MITO festival, Des Knaben Wunderhorn for the Sinfonica di Milano cond. Mariotti, a performance of Mustonen’s Taivaanvalot with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Mustonen, Les nuits d’été with Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra cond. Zehetmair, Das Paradies und das Peri with Capella Cracoviensis cond. Adamus, Winterreise with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Kholodenko, Britten Serenade with the Hallé Orchestra and City of Birmingham Orchestra, Folly of Desire with Brad Mehldau at the Wiener Konzerthaus and Bozar, performances of English chamber music at the Muziekcentrum Biljoke and Schleswig-Holstein Musikfest with Oxalys, a performance at Wigmore with Capella Neapolitana and with Laurence Power and the Oslo Chamber Orchestra, as well as performances with the Oberon Trio. He also undertakes a Korean recital tour of Winterreise with Julius Drake, and a European concert tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Additionally, Ian sings recitals with Magnus Svensson at the Stockholm Concert Hall, and longtime collaborators Saskia Giorgini at the Concertgebouw and Sociedad Filarmonica de Zaragoza and Julius Drake at the Pierre Boulez Saal and Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical in Madrid.

Kati Debretzeni

A fourth generation musician, Kati Debretzeni began playing the violin with Sofia Szabó in her native Romania, finishing her studies with Ora Shiran in Israel.

Her passion for historical performance took her to London, where she studied the Baroque violin with Catherine Mackintosh and Walter Reiter.

Since the year 2000 Kati leads the English Baroque Soloists under John Eliot Gardiner, with whom she has performed the world over. Her playing can be heard in the group’s recordings of JS Bach’s cantatas (recorded live during the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage 2000), the Brandenburg concertos and the more recent recordings of the Mass in B Minor, the St Matthew Passion and Monteverdi’s operas. In 2018 she recorded violin concertos by JS Bach with the orchestra to critical acclaim, including her own arrangement of BWV 1053. In April 2022 she performed Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante conducted by Gardiner in the US, UK and Italy.

Since 2008 she is one of the leaders of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and has collaborated with Simon Rattle, Adam and Ivan Fischer, András Schiff, William Christie, Ottavio Dantone, Vladimir Jurowski, Maxim Emilyanichev and Ricardo Minasi. She has directed the group from the violinist’s chair in works ranging from Baroque repertoire to Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Berlioz, and has recorded Vivaldi’s Four Seasons following performances in collaboration with the Henri Oguike Dance Company.

Kati is in demand internationally as leader, soloist and director with groups such as Zefiro (Italy), Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra (Israel), Barokkanerne (Norway), Les Siècles and Amaryllis (France), Victoria Baroque (Canada) and the Budapest Bach Consort (Hungary).

A keen chamber musician, Kati has recorded award-winning CDs with Ricordo and Florilegium. In the last decade she is a member of Trio Goya.

As teacher, Kati has given masterclasses in the UK, Germany, Italy, Norway, Canada, Israel and Hungary. She is on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and her former students make music the world over.

Director of New Chamber Opera, Oxford and Director of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Bach the Universe & Everything series.

On the concert platform he has directed Purcell, Blow, Bach, Handel and Mozart with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Bach Easter Oratorio with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Haydn, Handel, CPE Bach, JC Bach, Ditterdorf and Viotti with the English Haydn Orchestra. Amongst other groups he has directed are Trondheim Barokk, the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, Victoria Baroque Players, British Columbia; Arion Baroque Ensemble, Montreal; Academy of Ancient Music, Academie d’Ambronay, the Mozart Festival Orchestra and St Paul’s Chamber Orchestra. He regularly appears at the Valetta Baroque, Toronto Bach and London Handel Festivals.

Devine’s opera repertoire includes works by Purcell, Cavalli, Handel, Haydn and Mozart as well as rarities by Galuppi, Salieri and Cimarosa. His recordings include Dido & Aeneas with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Sarah Connolly in the title role and many acclaimed discs as harpsichord and fortepiano soloist.

Steven Devine was educated at Chetham’s School of Music before reading Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford and completing his studies at the Royal College of Music. He was Director of Opera Restor’d from 2002 – 2010 and Kurator and Conductor of the Norwegian Wind Ensemble from 2016 – 2018. He is a member of electronic music group The Art of Moog performing Bach on synthesizers.

Steven Devine

Steven Devine combines a career as a conductor and director of orchestral, choral and opera repertoire with that of a solo harpsichordist and fortepianist. He is Conductor and Artistic Advisor of The English Haydn Festival; Music

In 1986, a group of inquisitive London musicians took a long hard look at that curious institution we call the Orchestra, and decided to start again from scratch. They began by throwing out the rulebook. Put a single conductor in charge? No way. Specialise in repertoire of a particular era? Too restricting. Perfect a work and then move on? Too lazy. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born.

And as this distinctive ensemble playing on period-specific instruments began to get a foothold, it made a promise to itself. It vowed to keep questioning, adapting and inventing as long as it lived. Residencies at the Southbank Centre and the Glyndebourne Festival didn’t numb its experimentalist bent. A major record deal didn’t iron out its quirks. Instead, the OAE examined musical notes with ever more freedom and resolve.

That creative thirst remains unquenched. The Night Shift series of informal performances are redefining concert formats. Its former home at London’s Kings Place has fostered further diversity of planning and music-making. The ensemble has formed the bedrock for some of Glyndebourne’s most groundbreaking recent productions.

In keeping with its values of always questioning, challenging and trailblazing, in September 2020, the OAE became the resident orchestra of Acland Burghley School, Camden. The residency – a first for a British orchestra – allows the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to live, work and play amongst the students of the school.

Now more than thirty years old, the OAE is part of our musical furniture. It has even graced the outstanding conducting talents of Elder, Rattle, Jurowski, Iván Fischer and John Butt with a joint title of Principal Artist. But don’t ever think the ensemble has lost sight of its founding vow. Not all orchestras are the same. And there’s nothing quite like this one.

Andrew Mellor