Home

News

Artists

Links

Contact

MATTHEW BROOK

Bass-baritone

full biography | reviews | photo

"Brook's 'Mache Dich', prefaced by perhaps the most assuaging recitative in musical history, is little short of masterful with the range of colour, risk and gentle courtesy he brings to this superlative emblem of unswerving faith"
- The Gramophone

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

Matthew Brook has worked with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Richard Hickox, Sir Charles Mackerras, Christophe Rousset and Paul McCreesh, and ensembles including the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestra Nationale de Lille.

His operatic roles include Polyphemus Acis and Galatea, the title role in Eugene Onegin, Sacristan Tosca, Noye Noye's Fludde, Papageno The Magic Flute, Figaro The Marriage of Figaro, Leporello Don Giovanni, Young Sam in the British premiere of Bernstein's A Quiet Place, Vicar Albert Herring, Jupiter in Rameau's Castor et Pollux, Starek and Mayor Jenufa, Antenor and Calkas in Walton's Troilus and Cressida with the Philharmonia/Hickox, and Counsel Trial By Jury recorded on Chandos with National Orchestra of Wales/Hickox.

Matthew's many recordings include Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ with BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Hickox, and Handel's Messiah with the Dunedin Consort/John Butt on Linn Records (Gramophone Award winner). He has recorded for DVD the acclaimed production of "The Full Monteverdi" with I Fagiolini.

Matthew has performed Brahms's Requiem with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, Mozart's Requiem, Haydn's The Seasons and Bach's St Matthew Passion for Gardiner, and the St John Passion with the OAE. Recent performances include Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, Ned Keene in Britten's Peter Grimes, Watchful, Obstinate and First shepherd in Vaughan-Williams's A Pilgrim's Progress, all with with Hickox, and his debut with Les Talens Lyriques/Rousset in Keiser's Brockes Passion.

Engagements this season and beyond include Nielson's Symphony no. 3 with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder; recording Friar Tuck in Sullivan's Ivanhoe for Chandos Records; Zuniga in Carmen at the Opera Comique in Paris with Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Bach's St Matthew Passion for the Netherlands Bach Society and Lars Ulrik Mortensen; Bach's St John Passion with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Oleg Caetani; and Bach Cantatas with the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich conducted by Marcus Creed.

This short biography is for information only and should not be reproduced. Please download a full biography here.