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Biographies: 750 and 350 words
750 words:
Peter Harvey - baritone
Peter Harvey arrived at Magdalen College, Oxford to study French and German, but soon afterwards changed course to music, with his love of languages always remaining at the heart of his singing, however. On leaving university he went on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, during which time he won prizes in a number of international singing competitions, including the Walther Grüner International Lieder Competition, the English Song Award, and the Peter Pears Award. Peter has made well over a hundred recordings in repertoire spanning eight centuries, with an emphasis on music from the High Baroque.
He performed Die Winterreise recently with Roger Vignoles in festivals in Cambridge and Lugo, Spain, and plans to record it with fortepianist Gary Cooper later this year. He has given recitals in festivals in Ottawa, Dinard and Lausanne, and recorded Beethoven settings of Scottish folksongs with Jérôme Hantaï's fortepiano trio (for Naïve). Other recitals include early Lieder with Laurence Cummings, Mozart in Barcelona and a programme of Lute Songs and Lieder in London's Purcell Room with Matthew Wadsworth (lute and 19th century guitar) and Gary Cooper.
With the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir, directed by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, he was a key participant in the "Bach Cantata Pilgrimage", recordings of which include the celebrated solo cantata Ich habe genug. More recently he has sung Bach cantatas in the Paris and Leipzig, and he sings Christus in the St John Passion this year in the BBC Proms. A long-standing soloist with Paul McCreesh's Gabrieli Consort, he sings Adam in their recent recording of Haydn's Creation, also appearing in recordings of St Matthew Passion (Bach), Solomon (Handel) and the Monteverdi Vespers (all Deutsche Grammophon) and in concerts including the Châtelet (Paris), Lincoln Center (New York) the Barbican (London). Another long-term collaboration is with The King's Consort (concerts in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, The Sage, Gateshead, London's Wigmore Hall) in their many recordings, which include the Monteverdi Vespers, music by Bach's predecessors, by Michael Haydn (Requiem and Dies Irae), and most recently, Handel's Festa in Parnasso, directed by Matthew Halls. He has recorded much early Bach with the Purcell Quartet and Emma Kirkby (Chandos), and with London Baroque he recently issued a disc of Rameau's secular cantatas (BIS). He has appeared with the Sixteen (BBC Proms, Spain, Brazil) and sings regularly with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Ivan Fischer and Gustav Leonhardt, recently performing the St John Passion in London, Seoul and Tokyo. Peter sings often with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the St. David's Hall, Cardiff (Creation, Christmas Oratorio) and sang Schubert's Mass in Eb with the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis.
A fluent French speaker, Peter Harvey has worked for many continental groups, in particular the Chapelle Royale and Collegium Vocale of Ghent (Philippe Herreweghe), with whom he has made many recordings, including CPE Bach's Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu (Opéra Garnier, Paris). He has sung with Christophe Rousset's Les Talens Lyriques in the Opera at Versailles, whilst with Le Concert Spirituel, directed by Hervé Niquet, he has made countless recordings of the sacred repertoire of the French Baroque, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and King Arthur (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and Opéra Comique, Paris), and La Cambiale de Matrimonio (Slook) by Rossini. Recordings with Il Seminario Musicale and the French counter-tenor Gérard Lesne include such rarities as Scarlatti's oratorio Sedecia, and Galuppi's engaging Confitebor tibi Domine, and he has performed often with Jean-Claude Malgoire. His long association with the Swiss conductor Michel Corboz, has taken him throughout France, Switzerland and Japan (Mendelssohn's Elijah, Bach's Passions), and produced recordings including two versions of the Requiem by Fauré, the latest of which won a "Choc de l'année" in Le Monde de la Musique.
The Netherlands Bach Society have recorded Mozart's Requiem, Bach's Christmas Oratorio and B minor Mass with Peter (recently at the Tanglewood Festival, USA), and also given the little known St John Passion by Georg Gebel in a televised performance at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, broadcast this Easter. With Ton Koopman he has performed Bach in the Musikverein (Vienna), Théâtre des Champs Elysées (Paris), in Verona and Rome. In Germany he sings with Berlin Radio Symphony Orchstra, La Stagione, Frankfurt (Athalia, Handel Festival, Halle), and with Frieder Bernius' Stuttgart Chamber Choir, with whom he records Messiah later this year.
He will sing Messiah with the Calgary Philharmonic in Canada, where he also works with Tafelmusik and The Theatre of Early Music. He appeared with the Washington Bach Consort in May, and at Easter he had the great honour to sing the St. Matthew Passion with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Bernard Haitink's first performances of the work.
350 words - emphasis on French repertoire
Peter Harvey - baritone
Peter Harvey arrived at Magdalen College, Oxford to study French and German, but soon afterwards changed course to music, with his love of languages always remaining at the heart of his singing, however. On leaving university he went on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, during which time he won prizes in a number of international singing competitions, including the Walther Grüner International Lieder Competition, the English Song Award, and the Peter Pears Award.
Peter has made well over a hundred recordings in repertoire spanning eight centuries, with an emphasis on music from the High Baroque. Along with works by Handel and Purcell he has recorded all the major vocal works of J.S. Bach and many of the cantatas with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe and Paul McCreesh. A fluent French speaker, Peter has recorded a great many sacred works of the French Baroque (Campra, Gilles, Lully, Charpentier, Lalande) including Rameau's complete Grands Motets (with Le Concert Spirituel) and the secular cantatas for bass voice (with London Baroque, on BIS). From the twentieth century French repertoire he has recorded the Fauré Requiem twice with Michel Corboz, the latest version winning the "Choc de l'année" in Le Monde de la Musique, while as yet unreleased is a new version of the Duruflé Requiem with Magdalen College, Oxford. The Gabrieli Consort's new recording of Haydn's Creation, for Deutsche Grammophon, on which Peter sings "Adam" has recently been released to great acclaim.
Recent career highlights include Bach cantatas with Ton Koopman in Vienna's Musikverein, the B minor Mass in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Die Winterreise with Roger Vignoles in Cambridge and Spain, Messiah in Toronto, a tour to the Far East with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment in the St John Passion and the St. Matthew Passion with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in Bernard Haitink's first performances of the work.
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