Aberdeen Bach Choir

 
Aberdeen Bach Choir will be performing in St. Machar's Cathedral, Aberdeen, on Sunday 29th April 2001 at 7:45pm:

            Mass in B Minor - J.S. Bach 
 

Ticket prices will be £11 and £7 for concessions. Children Under 12 are free. 
 

SOLOISTS: 
 
Ruth Holton (Soprano): 

Ruth read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where she was a choral exhibitioner, and studied singing with Nancy Long and Julie Kennard.  She made her first solo recording in Bach's St. John Passion for Deutsche Grammophon under John Eliot Gardiner, and rapidly became well known for her performances of the Baroque and Classical repertoire.  Ruth's recordings include Carissimi's Jephtha, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Bach Cantatas with Gardiner and Tom Koopman, Mozart's Salzburg Masses, Handel's Messiah, and Schütz's Christmas Story with the King's Consort.  Her repertoire ranges from 15th century chanson as sung on a BBC radio recital, to music of the present day.  She has given a programme of newly commissioned works at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and in 1993 she took part in Janácek's From the House of the Dead with Andrew Davis.  She has participated in a BBC television documentary with original music by Peter Salem and recorded Grand Pianola Music by John Adams. 
She has recently completed an extensive European tour and recording of a programme of works by Steve Reich with Ensemble Modern.  1998 saw her performing a newly commissioned Te Deum by David Briggs in the Three choirs Festival and the world première of Gethsemane by Matthew King in The Spitalfields Festival. 
Ruth is an experienced recitalist and gives concerts of Lieder and French song with her accompanist Peter Nardone.  They have given recitals in London, Oxford, Glasgow and in the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester. 
Ruth's latest recording of Haydn's Nelson Mass has recently been released on the Meridian label.  She is also Head of Vocal Studies at St. Joseph's College, Beulah Hill. 
 

Deborah Miles-Johnson (Mezzo Soprano):

Deborah fulfulls a busy and varied career in opera, oratorio and the contemporary repertoire.  Work in recent seasons includes Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles with Simon Rattle and the CBSO, Mendelssohn's Elijah in Toronto, and the St. Matthew Passion with Andrew Parrott and the Norsk Barokkorkester in the prestigious Ansbach Bachwoche.  She has taken the role of Mrs Alexander in Satyagraha by Philip Glass under Martyn Brabbins at the Festival Hall, and also one of the Secretaries in a concert performance of Nixon in China by John Adams with Kent Nagano and the LSO at the first London performance.  This was recorded by the BBC as was her performance of the lead role in Il Parnasso in Festa by Handel.  She has performed Mozart's Mass in C minor at the Barbican, Beethoven's Mass in C at St. Paul's Cathedral, and will sing in Verdi's Requiem at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, later this year. 
Among her many commercial recordings are Peter Maxwell Davies' Resurrection with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for Collins Classics and Jean Barraque's au dela du hazard... with the virtuoso group Klangforum at the Vienna Konzerthaus following a successful performance there and at the Strasbourg Festival.  She recorded Carl Rutti's Magnificat for ASV and recorded his Stabat Mater in 1999 following the world première at St. Johns Smith Square.  She made her Wigmore Hall début performing Upon Silence by George Benjamin together with the viol group Fretwork, following performances at the Festival Archipel in Geneva and also travelled to Prague with them to perform and record Arvo Pärt's Stabat Mater. 
A regular visitor to Haddo House in Aberdeen, she has perfomed Madame Larina in Eugene Onegin and Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus. 

 

Mark Wilde (Tenor):

Mark was born in Scotland and studied at the University of East Anglia and the Royal College of Music.  He performs regularly throughout the UK and abroad in opera, oratorio and recitals. 
Engagements have taken him throughout the UK, to Finland, France, Germany and Norway, under the direction of conductors such as Stuart Bedford, Nicholas Braithwaite, Stephen Cleobury, Ronald Corp, Roy Goodman, David Hill, Osmo Vanskä and Hilary Davan Wetton. 
Highlights have included the War Reqiuem by Britten in Ypres Cathedral, Berlioz's Te Deum in Orléans Cathedral and the Brighton Festival, Ronald Corp's Laudibus under the composer's direction at the Royal Festival Hall, Athalia at the London Handel Festival, Haydn's The Creation at the Barbican Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and at The International Festival of Church Music in Kristiansand and the Moteverdi Vespers of 1610 at the Norland Musikkfestuke, Norway. 
Operatic engagements have included Britten's Albert Herring at the Perth Festival, Spiridone in Il Campanello at the Buxton Festival, Oronte in Alcina and Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute for English National Opera, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte by Mozart at the Royal Academy of Music conducted by Sir Colin Davis, and Gonsalve in L'heure espagnole for Pimlico Opera, and roles in Vivaldi's Giustino and Ottone with La Serenissima for Radio 3. 
His début solo CD recording Ancient Melodies (Songs with Guitar) is now available on Docker Records and Handel's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day awaits release on Naxos.  He recently made his débuts at the Glyndebourne Festival as Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte and at ENO as Second Soldier in The Coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi.

Simon Kirkbride (Bass):

Simon won a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded a Queen Mother Scholarship to study in the Opera School and The President's Rose Bowl, the college's most prestigious award. 
Operatic engagements have included Morales in Bizet's Carmen for Scottish Opera, Zuniga in Carmen and Publico in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito for Welsh National Opera, Junius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and The Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen at the RCM, Lycomdes in Deidamia for the London Handel Festival and Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Don Giovanni for the European Studio-Milan and Sylvan in Dioclesian for Kent Opera. 
In the UK, Simon has appeared with the Britten Sinfonia, Florilegium, London Baroque, the London Handel Orchestra and the London Mozart Players, under conductors such as Sir Bernard Haitink, Sir Charles Mackerras, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Sir David Willcocks at venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, St. John's Smith Square, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.  His recordings include the Saint-Saëns Requiem with the London Philharmonic under Geoffrey Simon. 
International engagements have included Bach's B Minor Mass with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Christmas Oratorio in Bergen, the St. John Passion in Lausanne, the St. Matthew Passion in Edmonton, Beethoven's Choral Symphony with L'Orchestre de la Societé Philharmonique, Montreal, Berlioz's Messe Solennelle in Switzerland, Handel's Messiah with the Calgary Philharmonic, the McGill Chamber Orchestra and the Kitchener-Waterloo Choir and Samson with Konzertchor Darmstadt.

 

N.B.  Admission to the Cathedral will be from 7:15pm onwards.

  


Page last altered by Margaret Downie on 11th April 2001.