Bach Mass in B minor 4 December 2016 - Soloists
Elinor Rolfe Johnson - Soprano
Elinor Rolfe Johnson graduated from Cambridge University with a Masters degree in Music and studies with Susan Roberts. She completed her two years on the Opera school at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Summer of 2013. As an RCS scholarship holder Elinor was also very kindly supported by the Russell Sheppard Trust Vocal Scholarship and the Richard Stapley trust. She has performed at venues including the Theatre Royal Glasgow, L'Archeveche and Grand Theatre Aix-en-Provence, St Johns Smith Square, Leeds Town Hall, Snape Maltings and St. George’s Hanover Square.
Operatic roles include Pamina - Die Zauberflote, both Countess and Susanna - Le nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi - Cosi fan Tutte, Rosalinde - and Tytania - A Midsummer night's Dream. Song repertoire comprises works by Britten, Poulenc, Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Debussy and Strauss and Oratorio by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Tippet, Vaughan Williams and Brahms.
A finalist at the 2010 London Handel Festival Competition, Elinor more recently performed the role of Ismene in Telemann's Orpheus for the Classical Opera Company. In September 2013 she sang her debut recital at the Wigmore Hall with William Vann. Summer 2014, Elinor covered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival for the Bach, Trauernacht project, under Raphael Pichon and worked alongside the Freiburger Barockorchester, with Pablo Heras-Casado in the festival’s production of Die Zauberflote. In October she performed the role of Rosalinde for Opera Danube's Die Fledermaus at St John's, Smith Square and has recently completed her debut as Countess for Regents Opera's Le Nozze di Figaro and returned to the role this Summer for Opera Brava.
Future engagements include a tour with Israel Camerata in March 2017.
Nicholas Spanos - Counter Tenor
Nicolas Spanos studied with Aris Christofellis in Greece. He furthered his studies at the University of Maryland School of Music (U.S.A.) and graduated with a Masters Degree in Voice / Opera Performance. His higher education includes a Postgraduate Course in Lied & Oratorio with Charles Spencer in the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He has participated actively in many Vocal masterclasses taught by prominent teachers, such as Kurt Equiluz, Delores Ziegler, Anna Tomowa-Sintow and Michael Chance.
He has been acclaimed for his appearance in opera, oratorio and recital and has collaborated often with the National Opera of Greece, Opera Lorraine, Athens and Thessaloniki Megaron Concert Hall, Athens State Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, National Theatre of Greece, Orchestra of Colours, Bach Sinfonia (U.S.A.), Denmark Radio Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Stuttgart, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, Armonia Atenea and Ensemble Alraune. For many years he has been a regular collaborator with “Ex Silentio”, “Latinitas nostra” and “Pandolfis Consort Wien” Early Music Ensembles.
He was been awarded the “Best Young Artist of the Year” award by the Association of Theater and Music Critics of Greece, for his interpretation of the role of Arsamene in Händel’s in the National Opera of Greece and First Prize at the “TECHNI” National Competition for Lyric Singers, held in Thessaloniki. He has also won awards for his participation in recordings, which include the CD recording of Händel’s Oreste (2004) and Tamerlano (2006) by the German label MDG as well as a CD based on Metastasio's libretto, with the Venice Baroque Orchestra (V.B.O., 2011) for NAÏVE Records. In 2014 he was the first to revive the role of Ruggiero in Ristori's Le Fate with Ensemble Alraune, a production that was made into a DVD.
Nicholas Mulroy - Tenor
Born in Liverpool, Nicholas studied at Cambridge and at the RAM. Recent engagements have included Monteverdi Vespers in New York’s Carnegie Hall and at the Salzburg Festival, Bach Weihnachts-Oratorium in the Sydney Opera House, frequent performances at Wigmore Hall, Britten Serenade in China, Bach Johannes-Passion in Boston, and Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie at the Opéra de Paris.
He has especially enjoyed prolonged collaborations with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, John Butt, Jordi Savall, Paul McCreesh, Lars-Ulrik Mortensen, Laurence Cummings, Andrzej Kosendiak, and Emmanuelle Haïm. Recent highlights include title role of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in Australia, Purcell’s Fairy Queen for the Royal Danish Opera, Janacek’s Diary of one who Vanished for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and for the Philharmonia Orchestra at the RFH and a reconstruction of the first performance of Monteverdi’s Combattimento in Venice.
He has appeared frequently on BBC Radio in repertoire from Monteverdi to Tavener. Recordings include a Gramophone Award-winning Messiah, Stravinsky Cantata with the SCO, Bach cantatas (Actus Tragicus and Oster-Oratorium) for SDG, and Monteverdi Vespers with the OAE, and forthcoming recordings include Weihnachts-Oratorium and Piazzolla’s unique María de Buenos Aires with Mr McFall’s Chamber. Future plans include concerts with the BBC Philharmonic, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and recitals in Scotland and at the Wigmore Hall. He was recently elected an ARAM. In 2014 he was Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Australian National University in Canberra, and is a Musician in Residence of Girton College, Cambridge.
Samuel Evans - Baritone
A former choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, Samuel studied as a postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and then Royal College of Music International Opera School, graduating in 2011 with the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal. He is a Samling Scholar, and was a finalist in the 2007 Kathleen Ferrier Awards. As a winner of the Maisie Lewis Prize he made his solo recital debut at the Wigmore Hall. He won both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 London Welsh Young Singer of the Year, and in 2010 was a finalist in the Welsh Singer of the Year Competition at St. David’s Hall, Cardiff.
Concert engagements have included Bach St. John Passion in Malta with the OAE, Bach Christmas Oratorio in Sydney Opera House under Richard Tognetti, Bach B Minor Mass in the Bachfest Leipzig with the English Baroque Soloists/Gardiner, Handel Messiah with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway, Mozart C Minor Mass with The Northern Sinfonia/Thomas Zehetmair, Mozart Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall and St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Mozart Vesperae Solennes de Confessore in Salzburg Cathedral, Bach St Matthew Passion at the Fairfield Halls, Haydn Theresienmesse at St. John’s Smith Square, Rutter Mass of the Children at Cadogan Hall, Monteverdi Vespers in Southwark Cathedral and Beethoven Symphony No.9 for Highgate Choral Society. He has given recitals at St John’s Smith Square and The Peak Festival.
His operatic roles include Garibaldo Rodelinda in the London Handel Festival, Don Alfonso Cosi fan Tutte at the Royal College of Music, Kilian Der Freischütz at the Opéra Comique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner and The Forester The Cunning Little Vixen at the Ryedale Festival. He has also sung Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro and Guglielmo Cosi fan Tutte for Vignette Productions in London and France, Chelsias Susanna for Iford, Traveller Curlew River in the Aldeburgh Festival and St. Petersburg for Mahogany Opera, Giacchino Leonora for Bampton Classical Opera, Aeneas Dido and Aeneas for the Armonico Consort, Leporello Don Giovanni for Opera-by-Definition, Pallante Agrippina for Barber Opera, and Judas Pilgrim’s Progress at Sadler’s Wells under Richard Hickox, as well as performing on tour with Essential Scottish Opera. In concert, he has performed the role of Le Grand Prêtre in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux at the Salle Pleyel in Paris under Gardiner.
