The English Concert

Performers

• The English Concert
  Harry Bicket, Conductor
• David Daniels, Countertenor (Radamisto)
• Brenda Rae, Soprano (Polissena)
• Joélle Harvey, Soprano (Tigrane)
• Patricia Bardon, Mezzo-Soprano (Zenobia)
• Luca Pisaroni, Bass-Baritone (Tiridate)
• David Kravitz, Baritone (Farasmane)

Program

• HANDEL Radamisto (concert performance)

Bios

• The English Concert

                                              
  The English Concert is among the finest chamber orchestras in the world, with an unsurpassed reputation for inspiring performances of Baroque and Classical music. Created by Trevor Pinnock in 1973, the orchestra appointed Harry Bicket as its artistic director in 2007, and has since toured with him to Europe, the US, the Middle East, and the Far East. Mr. Bicket is renowned for his work with singers, and in recent seasons The English Concert has collaborated with artists that include Mark Padmore, Ian Bostridge, Vesselina Kasarova, Lucy Crowe, Elizabeth Watts, Danielle de Niese, Rosemary Joshua, and Sarah Connolly.
  
  Recent highlights include European and US tours with Alice Coote, Sara Mingardo, Anna Caterina Antonacci, and Andreas Scholl; a residency as artist-in-association at the 2011 Spitalfields Music Summer Festival; residencies at the Victoria and Albert, and Handel House museums in London; and The English Concert Master Class for young harpsichordist-directors in London. In addition, Mr. Bicket directed The English Concert and Choir in televised performances of Bach's Mass in B Minor at the 2012 Leipzig Bachfest and the 2012 BBC Proms, and in August they appeared with David Daniels at the Edinburgh International Festival.
  
  The English Concert and Choir's 2010 tour of Spain, featuring Handel's Messiah, was broadcast on television from the Palau de la Música in Barcelona. In 2011, they returned to the US, visiting Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and New York with Andreas Scholl; beginning in 2013, they present three Handel operas in concert in successive seasons for Carnegie Hall and on tour throughout the US and Europe.
  
  The English Concert's discography includes more than 100 recordings with Trevor Pinnock for Deutsche Grammophon Archiv, and a series of critically acclaimed CDs for Harmonia Mundi with violinist Andrew Manze. Recordings with Harry Bicket have been widely praised, including the recent release of Lucy Crowe's debut solo recital, Il caro Sassone. In October, EMI Classics released Sound the Trumpet, a recording of Baroque music for trumpet with Alison Balsom and The English Concert directed by Trevor Pinnock. The English Concert works with several distinguished guest directors, including oboist Alfredo Bernardini, violinist Fabio Biondi, and harpsichordists Laurence Cummings and Kenneth Weiss.

  Harry Bicket

  
  Internationally renowned as an opera and concert conductor of distinction, Harry Bicket is especially noted for his interpretation of Baroque and Classical repertoire. He became artistic director of The English Concert, one of the UK's finest period orchestras, in 2007.
  
  Mr. Bicket's engagements in the 2012-2013 season and beyond include extensive touring and recording commitments with The English Concert and returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera (La clemenza di Tito, Giulio Cesare), Canadian Opera Company, Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), and Houston Grand Opera. He has recently conducted opera productions for the Metropolitan Opera (Rodelinda), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Rinaldo), and Opéra National de Bordeaux (Alcina), as well as many projects with The English Concert that have featured soloists such as Ian Bostridge, Andreas Scholl, and Vesselina Kasarova. Last summer, he conducted The English Concert at both the BBC Proms (Bach's B-Minor Mass) and Edinburgh International Festival in a program with David Daniels.
  
  Highlights of recent seasons include guest-conducting engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, as well as critically acclaimed opera productions for Lyric Opera of Chicago (Hercules), Minnesota Opera (Orfeo), Canadian Opera Company (Orfeo and Idomeneo), Gran Teatre del Liceu (L'arbore di Diana), Theater an der Wien (Iphigénie en Tauride), and Atlanta Opera (Orfeo). Concerts and tours with The English Concert have included engagements at the BBC Proms and throughout Spain, the Middle East, Austria, Germany, and the US. Mr. Bicket has conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra-including the world premiere of Ken Hesketh's oratorio Like the Sea, like Time-as well as the San Francisco Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Houston and Seattle symphonies, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
  
  Mr. Bicket has appeared at major US festivals that include Glimmerglass, Spoleto, Aspen, and Santa Fe. His discography includes releases with Ian Bostridge, David Daniels, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson; a disc of Handel duets with Sarah Connolly and Rosie Joshua; and, most recently, a recording that features Lucy Crowe and The English Concert.

   

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  David Daniels

  
  American countertenor David Daniels is known for his superlative artistry, magnetic stage presence, and a voice of singular warmth and surpassing beauty, which have helped him redefine the countertenor voice for the modern public. His operatic roles have included the title roles in Gluck's Orfeo and Handel's Orlando, Tamerlano, Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare, and Radamisto; Didymus in Handel's Theodora; Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream; Bertarido in Handel's Rodelinda; Arsace in Handel's Partenope; and  Roberto in Vivaldi's Griselda.
  
  Engagements in the current season include the title role of Giulio Cesare at  the Metropolitan Opera, the title role in Radamisto at  Theater an der Wien, and Tirinto in a concert tour of Handel's Imeneo with the Academy of Ancient Music and Christopher Hogwood. In addition, he creates the role of Oscar Wilde in Theodore Morrison's new opera Oscar at Santa Fe Opera.
  
  Mr. Daniels has given recitals at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, London's Wigmore Hall, Paris's Salle Gaveau, Munich's Prinzregententheater, Vienna's Konzerthaus, Barcelona's Gran Teatro del Liceu, and at the Edinburgh, Tanglewood, and Ravinia festivals, among many other venues. In concert, he has appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Louis and Seattle symphonies, and the New York Philharmonic with such conductors as James Levine, Andrew Davis, Bernard Labadie, Emmanuelle Haïm, Christophe Rousset, and Fabio Biondi.
  
  Mr. Daniels's latest recording is a collection of Bach's sacred arias and cantatas conducted by Harry Bicket with The English Concert for Virgin Classics. Other recordings include Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with Dorothea Röschmann, conducted by Fabio Biondi; Berlioz's Les nuits d'été with John Nelson; Nerone in L'incoronazione di Poppea with Ivor Bolton; and Didymus in Theodora with William Christie. He has also recorded the title role in Handel's Rinaldo on the Decca label opposite Cecilia Bartoli with Christopher Hogwood, which received a Gramophone Editor's Choice Album of the Year award in 2002. Soon to be released is his recording of the role of Arsemenes in Serse with Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company for Chandos.
  
  Mr. Daniels was Musical America's Vocalist of the Year for 1999 and the recipient of the 1997 Richard Tucker Award.

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• Brenda Rae

  
  American soprano Brenda Rae is currently a member of the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt, where her repertory includes the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Violetta in La traviata, Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Angelica in Orlando Furioso, the Governess in The Turn of the Screw, Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, Servilia in La clemenza di Tito, Musetta in La bohème, Lora in Die Feen, Giunone in La Calisto, Sandrina in La finta giardiniera, and the title role in La Giuditta.
  
  Engagements in the 2012-2013 season include Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos for her debut with the Hamburg State Opera, followed by debuts at Opéra de Paris as Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress, Violetta in La traviata at Santa Fe Opera, the title role in Maria Stuarda in concert in Frankfurt, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Opéra National de Bordeaux.
  
  Highlights of the 2011-2012 season included Elias with Teatro Filarmonico di Verona, and her debuts at the Bavarian State Opera as Konstanze in Die Entfühurng aus dem Serail and the Vienna State Opera in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor.
  
  Ms. Rae's roles while a student at Juilliard included Comtesse Adèle in Le comte Ory, Arminda in La finta giardiniera, Eurydice in Orphée aux enfers, Diana in La Calisto, and Mary Shrike in the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann's Miss Lonelyhearts. Ms. Rae spent two summers as a young artist at Central City Opera, where her roles included the title role in Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe and Valletto in L'incoronazione di Poppea. She has been awarded honors from the Licia Albanese-Puccini and Bel Canto foundations, and Wisconsin NATS. She is also a recipient of a Shoshana Foundation Richard F. Gold Grant from Central City Opera, and grants from the Giulio Gari and Annenberg foundations.

   

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  Joélle Harvey

                                         
  A native of Bolivar, New York, soprano Joélle Harvey is becoming recognized as one of the most promising young talents of her generation. She is the recipient of a First Prize Award in 2011 from the Gerda Lissner Foundation Vocal Competition, a 2009 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, and a 2010 Encouragement Award (in honor of Norma Newton) from the George London Foundation Vocal Competition.
  
  In the summer of 2012, Ms. Harvey made her Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut in a revival of Jonathan Kent's The Fairy Queen, and  sang Bach's B-Minor Mass with The English Concert at the BBC Proms and in Leipzig. Her engagements in the 2012-2013 season include Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro on tour with the Glyndebourne Festival and with Arizona Opera; Handel's Messiah and Grieg's Peer Gynt with the San Francisco Symphony, the Mendelssohn and Bach Magnificats for her debut with the New York Philharmonic, Iphis in a tour of Handel's Jephtha with Harry Christophers and the Handel and Haydn Society, and Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, conducted by Marc Minkowski. Upcoming engagements include performances with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Arizona Opera, and Dallas Opera, as well as concerts with the Handel and Haydn Society, New York Philharmonic, and Kansas City Symphony.
  
  Highlights of recent seasons include Galatea in Acis and Galatea at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Teatro La Fenice; Handel's Messiah for her debut with the Kansas City Symphony and in a return to the San Francisco Symphony; Michal in Saul at London's Barbican Centre with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, which she also recorded with the company; a return to New York City Opera for Eurydice in Telemann's Orpheus, Carmina Burana with the San Francisco Symphony, Handel's Messiah in Spain with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Sophie in Werther with Washington Concert Opera under the baton of Antony Walker, and Miranda in the world premiere of Tod Machover's Death and the Powers at Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

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  Patricia Bardon

                                     
  Patricia Bardon has sung with many of the world's leading opera houses and orchestras, under conductors that include Claudio Abbado, Jiří Bělohlávek, William Christie, Stéphane Denève, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, René Jacobs, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Christophe Rousset, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Highlights of recent seasons include Erda in Wagner's Ring cycle at the Metropolitan Opera; the title role in Carmen for the Hamburg State Opera, Welsh National Opera, and Scottish Opera; the title role in Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater for Opéra de Paris; Tancredi and Arsace in Semiramide for Teatro La Fenice; Anna in Les Troyens for Scottish Opera, Opera North, and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Smeton in Anna Bolena at San Francisco Opera; Angelina in La Cenerentola in Lausanne and La Monnaie, Brussels; and Malcolm in La donna del lago at the Edinburgh International Festival.
  
  Engagements in the 2012-2013 season include her Santa Fe Opera debut as Calbo in Maometto II, Cornelia in David McVicar's production of Giulio Cesare at the Metropolitan Opera and in a new production at English National Opera, Zenobia in a new production of Radamisto at Theater an der Wien under René Jacobs, and Lady Penelope Rich in Richard Jones's new production of Gloriana at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
  
  Other highlights include Cornelia in Giulio Cesare at the Metropolitan Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Glyndebourne; the title role in Orlando at Opéra de Paris and in New York, Moscow, and Lyon; Andronico in Tamerlano in Amsterdam, Madrid, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC; Rosmira in Partenope for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Theater an der Wien, and English National Opera; Amastris in Serse for Opéra de Montpellier, Bavarian State Opera, and Dresden; Juno in Semele in Innsbruck and at English National Opera; the title role in Rinaldo for Oper Köln; and Ottavia in L'incoronazione di Poppea in Oslo.
  
  Concert performances include Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater suite, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Britten's Spring Symphony, and Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin; Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven's Missa solemnis with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Handel's Messiah and Mozart's Requiem with Les Arts Florissants; Handel's Jephtha with the Freiburger Barockorchester; and Verdi's Requiem with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

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  Luca Pisaroni

  
  Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni has established himself as one of the most captivating and versatile singers of his generation. Since his debut at the Salzburg Festival at age 26 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, he has performed at many of the top opera houses and at concert halls worldwide.
  
  Engagements this season include Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at Opéra de Paris and in Baden-Baden, Enrico VIII in Anna Bolena on tour with the Vienna State Opera in Japan, Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra, Paolo in Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten with The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst, and Bach cantatas at Vienna's Musikverein under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In addition, he performs recitals throughout Europe.
  
  Mr. Pisaroni has sung Mozart's Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, San Francisco Opera, Vienna State Opera, and Salzburg Festival; Leporello at Glyndebourne, the Metropolitan Opera, Madrid's Teatro Real, and at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine; Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Glyndebourne; Papageno in Die Zauberflöte at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; and Hercules in Gluck's Alceste at Salzburg. In addition, he has appeared as Argante in Rinaldo at Chicago Lyric Opera, as Caliban in The Enchanted Island at the Metropolitan Opera, in the title role in Cavalli's Ercole amante with Nederlandse Opera, and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas for the Wiener Festwochen.
  
  In concert, Mr. Pisaroni has performed Cherubini's Missa solemnis for Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Riccardo Muti, Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri with Sir Simon Rattle and The Philadelphia Orchestra, Zebul in Handel's Jephtha with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and Bach's St. John Passion at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet. He has also sung Rossini's Stabat Mater under Franz Welser-Möst, Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem under Edo de Waart, and Handel's La resurrezione with Il Giardino Armonico.
  
  Recent DVD releases include performances of Don Giovanni and Rinaldo at the Glyndebourne Festival and Le nozze di Figaro at Opéra National de Paris. In addition, he recently recorded Don Giovanni with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin for Deutsche Grammophon.

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  David Kravitz

                                                      
  Baritone David Kravitz is increasingly in demand on operatic and concert stages. Engagements in 2012-2013 include Le rossignol with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit, holiday concerts with the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart, Poo-Bah in The Mikado at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Captain Balstrode in Peter Grimes at Chautauqua Opera, and Nick Carraway in John Harbison's The Great Gatsby at the Tanglewood Music Festival.
  
  Highlights of the 2011-2012 season included Mr. Kravitz's debut with Florentine Opera as Ping in Turandot, performances with the Washington Chorus in Julian Wachner's Come My Dark Eyed One and Mozart's Mass in C Minor, Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Little Orchestra Society, Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus with Opera Memphis, Lord Salt in The Golden Ticket with Atlanta Opera, and Cosimo in John Musto's The Inspector with Boston Lyric Opera.
  
  Other recent highlights include the Businessman in Intermezzo at New York City Opera, the United Nations Delegate in the world premiere of Tod Machover's Death and the Powers at Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Provost Marshall and Gold Merchant in Hindemith's Cardillac at Opera Boston, Handel's Messiah with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Pilate in Bach's St. John Passion with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Masaaki Suzuki, Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress with Emmanuel Music, and Taddeo in L'italiana in Algeri at Boston Midsummer Opera.
  
  Committed to new music, Mr. Kravitz has performed Leontes in John Harbison's Winter's Tale with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Dominick Argento's song cycle The Andrée Expedition, newly commissioned songs by Andy Vores and James Yannatos, and the world premiere of an oratorio by Kareem Roustom. In recent seasons, Mr. Kravitz has presented the world premieres of Thomas Whitman's A Scandal in Bohemia with Orchestra 2001, James Yannatos's Lear Symphony with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and short operas by Andy Vores and Theo Loevendie with Boston Musica Viva.
  
  Mr. Kravitz's recordings of Andy Vores's song cycle Goback Goback and John Harbison's Winter's Tale with Boston Modern Orchestra Project were released in 2011. Other recordings include Bach's Cantata, BWV 20, and St. John Passion with Emmanuel Music, and Harbison's Four Psalms and Peter Child's Estrella with the Cantata Singers.

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