Rayfield Artists - Matthew Brook

MATTHEW BROOK

Bass-Baritone

"...an authoritative bass in Matthew Brook..."
- The Guardian

"Matthew Brook stood out as a soloist prepared to engage the text with individuality."
- The Independent

"Matthew Brook invests the 'Tuba mirum' with a proper sense of awe."- International Record Review

Matthew has appeared as a soloist throughout Europe, Australia, South Africa and the Far East. He has worked with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Richard Hickox, Sir Charles Mackerras, Harry Christophers, Christophe Rousset and Paul McCreesh, and many fine orchestras and groups including the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the English Baroque Soloists, the City of London Sinfonia, Collegium Vocale Gent, the Gabrieli Consort, the Sixteen, and Orchestra Nationale de Lille. As a soloist and former member of I Fagiolini he has performed at many of Europe’s top festivals, including Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Utrecht, the BBC Proms, Ambronay, La Chaise Dieu, Innsbruck and the Bermuda Festival. He has appeared regularly at the Three Choirs Festival, often singing newly commissioned works, most recently by Frances Grier and Anthony Powers.

Matthew’s operatic roles include Polyphemus Acis and Galatea, Ismeron in Purcell's The Indian Queen, Aeneas Dido and Aeneas, the title role in Eugene Onegin, Sacristan Tosca, Noye Noye's Fludde, Papageno The Magic Flute, Figaro The Marriage of Figaro, Leporello Don Giovanni, John Bunyan and Lord Hategood in Vaughan-Williams' The Pilgrim’s Progress, Melchior in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Young Sam in the British premiere of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, Vicar Albert Herring, Jupiter in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux in Paris with Gardiner, Starek and Mayor Jenufa, Antenor and Calkas in Walton’s Troilus and Cressida with the Philharmonia and Hickox for the BBC, and Counsel Trial By Jury recorded recently on the Chandos label with Hickox and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Also, in a European tour with the English Baroque Soloists and Gardiner, a Mozart opera gala, singing the roles of Don Alfonso and Bartolo, in venues including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Salle Pleyel, Paris, Teatro Real, Madrid and Giuseppe Verdi Opera House, Pisa.

Matthew's many recordings include his highly acclaimed recording of the bass solos in Mozart’s Requiem with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Tenebrae and Nigel Short (Warner Classics), Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with Richard Hickox and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, broadcast on BBC Television, and most recently a complete version of Handel’s original Dublin score of the Messiah with John Butt and the Dunedin Consort on Linn Records (2007 Gramophone Award winner). He has also recorded for Chandos, Hyperion, Naxos, and for EMI in a recording of Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. He has also recently recorded for DVD the acclaimed production of "The Full Monteverdi" with I Fagiolini.

On the concert platform Matthew has performed Brahms’ Requiem with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, Bach's B Minor Mass and Haydn's Harmoniemesse with the Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra, Elijah and Christmas Oratorio in Norway, Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Christmas Cantatas with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Leipzig, Spain, Rome, Verona, Frankfurt, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and London. He has also toured the Mozart Requiem as soloist with Gardiner in San Fransisco and at the Lincoln Centre, New York. Matthew sang bass solos in the St John Passion with the OAE and Mark Padmore at Snape Maltings, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Bristol, and will tour Europe, Korea and Japan in 2008 with the same piece. Matthew is an active song recitalist with his accompanist, Anna Markland, former BBC Young Musician of the Year. They recently performed Schubert’s Winterreise. He recently performed Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Hickox, Haydn’s The Seasons in Turin and Innsbruck with Gardiner, and his debut with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques in the production of Brockes Passion by Reinhard Keiser in Paris and Cologne.

Plans this season and beyond include performances of Campra's Requiem with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, Wolfram in Wagner's Tannhauser with Richard Hickox, Bach St Matthew Passion for the Netherlands Bach Society, Bach St John Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Bach Cantatas in Leipzig and Dresden and Brahms' Requiem in Vienna, Cologne and Paris with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Handel's Israel in Egypt with Emmanuelle Haim at the Edinburgh International Festival, and Vaughan-Williams Riders to the Sea at the Brighton Festival and the roles of Watchful, Obstinate and First Shepherd in A Pilgrim's Progress at Sadler's Wells, as well as recording the role of Friar Tuck from Sullivan's Ivanhoe for Chandos, all with Richard Hickox.