Live Handel’s Messiah Tue 2 January

GRAMMY-winning conductor Jeannette Sorrell is recognized internationally as one of today’s most compelling interpreters of Baroque and Classical repertoire. The daughter of a European immigrant father and an American mother, she grew up as a musician and dancer, and is credited by BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE for “forging a vibrant, life-affirming approach to early music.”

She studied conducting under Leonard Bernstein, Roger Norrington and Robert Spano at the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals; and studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. She won First Prize in the Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against over 70 harpsichordists from Europe, Israel, the U.S., and the Soviet Union.

Sorrell is the founder and artistic director of APOLLO’S FIRE, and has led the renowned period ensemble as conductor and harpsichord soloist in sold-out concerts from Carnegie Hall and London’s BBC Proms to the Tanglewood and Ravinia festivals. With nearly 7 million views of 3 their YouTube videos, Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have released 26 commercial CDs, including 8 bestsellers on the Billboard classical chart and a 2019 GRAMMY® winner. Her recordings include the complete Brandenburg Concerti and harpsichord concerti of Bach; Bach’s St John Passion; Handel’s Messiah; and the Monteverdi Vespers, among others.

In demand with symphony orchestras and period groups alike, Sorrell makes debuts this season with the New York Philharmonic (Handel’s Messiah) and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Bach’s St John Passion). She has repeatedly conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony, and New World Symphony, and also led the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Opera St Louis with the St Louis Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), the Florida Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic (Canada), and the Royal Northern Sinfonia (UK), among others.

Sorrell is the subject of the 2019 documentary by Academy award-winning director Allan Miller, titled PLAYING WITH FIRE. She has also been featured on Living the Classical Life. She has attracted national awards for her creative programming and her “storytelling” approach to early music, which has attracted many new listeners through the use of contextual and dramatic elements.

She holds an honorary doctorate from Case Western University and an award from the American Musicological Society. Passionate about guiding the next generation of performers, she is the architect of Apollo’s Fire’s Young Artist Apprentice program, which has produced many of the nation’s leading young professional baroque players; and the new Artistic Leadership Fellows program.

Scottish/Maltese Soprano, Carine Tinney, enjoys an international career singing oratorio, early music, lieder recitals, and opera. Particularly sought after in Baroque music throughout Europe and the UK, she has appeared as a soloist at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Handel Halle Festspiele, Lille Opera, with the Liverpool Philharmonic and La Monnaie De Munt, working alongside conductors such as Helmuth Rilling, Jeannette Sorrell , Emmanuelle Haim, Attilio Cremonesi and Jonathan Cohen.

Her solo engagements in the United States include the Berkeley Early Music Festival in California, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Quad City Symphony Orchestra led by Mark Russell Smith and Handel’s Messiah with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra led by Jeannette Sorrell. Since 2019, she is also a member of the acclaimed mediaeval/renaissance ensemble, Sollazzo, who performs regularly throughout Europe, USA and Asia. Opera highlights include the role of Pamina in Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Landestheater Detmold and the title role of Massenet’s Cendrillon. In 2019, Carine debuted at the Opera de Lille, in a production of Purcell’s Indian queen conducted by Emmanuelle Haim. Accredited with multiple scholarships, she is a prize winner at the Hugo-Wolf Academy International Competition for Liedkunst in Stuttgart and the Alumni/ASTA Competition for Lied Singing. She was awarded the BECA Bach scholarship in Barcelona and ‘Artist in Residence 2021’ at the Zentrum für Alte Musik, in Cologne.

Carine gained her Bachelor degree at the Edinburgh Napier University and continued her studies in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, where she graduated with two master’s degrees in Lied singing and in Opera under Gerhild Romberger and Manuel Lange.

Rosamond Thomas is a British mezzo-soprano currently based in Leipzig. She made her debut at the Hamburgische Staatsoper in June, singing in the World Premiere of Sciarrino’s Venere e Adone. Her roles include Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas; Cesare in Handel’s Giulio Cesare; L’Enfant in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Komponist in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos (Theater Schönbrunn Vienna); Asteria in Gluck’s La Corona (Burg Perchtoldsdorf); and Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas) at the Ryedale Festival 2019. She sang with the chorus for the Glyndebourne Festival and Tour 2022. In the Festival, she covered Second Bridesmaid in Le nozze di Figaro.

As a concert singer, Rosamond has sung in performances of Handel’s Messiah, Copland’s In the Beginning, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Duruflé’s Requiem, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, the latter in London’s Cadogan Hall.

Rosamond is an experienced song recitalist, performing programmes in the Bösendorfer Salon and Gesellschaft für Musiktheater in Vienna, songs by Roxanna Panufnik at the Ryedale Festival, Ravel’s Trois Poèmes de Mallarmé, and Rachmaninov songs in the Rachmaninov Festival at Pushkin House in London. She has sung in masterclasses with Helmut Deutsch, Christoph Prégardien (London Song Festival) and Justus Zeyen.

Rosamond studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Vienna. She was awarded Second Prize in the Hurn Court Singing Competition 2023 and was Highly Commended in the National Mozart Competition 2018.

Magnus Walker is a Glasgow born tenor who studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 2016 – 2023. Magnus made his Three Choirs Festival soloist debut in Elgar’s The Kingdom, and his international solo debut performing the tenor solo in Britten’s War Requiem with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra. In summer 2018, Magnus returned to the Three Choirs Festival to sing Lili Boulanger’s setting of Psalm 130: Du Fond de L’Abime.

Magnus also has a keen love of Art song, he is currently on the Oxford Lieder Young artist program where he has performed alongside artists such as Kate Royal, Christine Rice and Julius Drake. As part of the program Magnus has also performed in the International Lied Festival Zeist. He also recently made his Wigmore Hall debut in a recital of Schubert Lieder celebrating the Royal Academy of Music’s Bicentenary. Magnus recently performed the role of Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, conducted by Trevor Pinnock and directed by Freddy Wake-Walker. Other operatic highlights include performing the roles of Lysander in the Royal Academy Opera’s production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan Tutte, and Gonzalve in Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole.

Born in Sydney, Morgan Pearse is widely recognised as one of the most exciting and talented baritones of his generation.

He made his major professional début with English National Opera in 2015/16 singing Figaro in The Barber of Seville and returned there to sing the role again at the beginning of the 2017/18 season. Since then he has worked at the highest level with engagements including concerts with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and Musica Viva orchestras in Russia and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw, solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall with Simon Lepper, as well as performances of roles with Opera New Zealand and the Badisches Staatstheater. Other recent and future engagements include the title role in the Verbier Festival Academy production of Don Giovanni, Valens in Theodora and Araspe in Tolomeo for the Karlsruhe Händelfestpiele, the title role in Le nozze di Figaro and Papageno / Die Zauberflöte for the Badisches Staatstheater, covering the title role in Billy Budd for the Bolshoi Theatre, Sid in Albert Herring for the Buxton Festival, Escamillio / Carmen for South Australia Opera, Nero in Kaiser’s Octavia and Almiro / Idalma both for the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music,  Belcore / L’Elisir d’Amore, Figaro / Barbiere for New Zealand Opera and the State Opera of South Australia, Farasmene / Radamisto for Philharmonia Baroque and Figaro / Le nozze di Figaro in a new production for the Opernhaus Zurich.

Equally at home in concert repertoire, Morgan’s concert engagements have included the first performance of Schubert’s Winterreise in Sydney in 20 years, Fauré Requiem and Handel Messiah in the Sydney Opera House, performances of Britten’s War Requiem throughout Poland and Mozart Requiem  with the English Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Melbourne Recital Hall, Hamer Hall, Copenhagen’s Konserthuset, Sydney Opera House, St John’s Smith Square, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, as well as the Edinburgh Fringe, Gower and Newbury Spring Festivals. Recent and future concert engagements include a solo recital at the Wigmore Hall, concerts with the Moscow Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra, RTVE Madrid, Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevillia, BBC Symphony, The Sixteen, Huddersfield Choral Society, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choir, concert performances of Masetto / Don Giovanni with the Auckland Philharmonia and the Russian National Orchestra, concerts with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, King’s College Choir Cambridge, the Cheltenham Bach Choir, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the Newbury Festival, the Creation with the Orchestra of the Opernhaus Zurich, the B minor mass with the Hallé Orchestra, performances of the War Requiem with the Israel Philharmonic, Bach cantatas with the Gabrieli Consort and concerts and recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music.

A former member of the renowned Houston Grand Opera studio programme his roles there included Papageno, Yamadori / Madame Butterfly, Anthony/ Sweeney Todd as well as covering Guglielmo / Così fan Tutte and singing scenes as Malatesta / Don Pasquale. He went on to perform the role of Figaro in The Ghosts of Versailles for Wolf Trap Opera.

Morgan has also performed the title role in Owen Wingrave for Sydney Chamber Opera, Pompeo/ Benvenuto Cellini for English National Opera, Minos / Arianna in Creta and the title role in Imeneo for the London Handel Festival, Apollo /L’Orfeo in an Australian national tour of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Principal Baritone in Dioclesian with Pinchgut Opera and the world premiere of Underground Man / Notes from Underground with Sydney Chamber Opera.

Morgan was the winner of the prestigious Cesti Competition in 2016, won the prestigious Lies Askonas prize in 2014 and was the gold medallist in the Royal Overseas League’s Music Competition in 2013. He has also won the John Warner Recital Competition, the RCM’s Schumann Competition, is a Samling Artist, an awardee from the Australian Music Foundation, the Tate Foundation, the Cook Society and the Josephine Baker Trust.

He is extremely grateful for the continual support of the Hon. Ros Kelly, Old Sydneians’ Union, John Hosier Trust, Opera and Arts Support Group, Ian Potter Cultural Trust and Sir Robert Askin Travelling Operatic Scholarship.

The RSNO Chorus performs in around six different programmes in up to twenty concerts across Scotland with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra each year. The RSNO Chorus has also had great success in recording with the Orchestra. Its recordings, amongst others, of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, conducted by Neeme Jӓrvi, and Holst’s The Planets, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones, have both attracted high critical acclaim.

In addition to its commitment to the Orchestra, the RSNO Chorus performs independently and has been invited to perform with orchestras in many parts of the world, establishing an international status and touring to Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Israel, Germany, Belfast, Australia, Trondheim and most recently, Amsterdam and Prague. In 2018 it performed Britten’s War Requiem with the RSNO at the BBC Proms.

The RSNO Chorus evolved from a choir formed in 1843 to sing the first full performance of Handel’s Messiah in Scotland. Today, it is one of the most successful choruses in the UK. In recent years, it has performed practically every work in the standard choral repertoire along with contemporary works by renowned composers, including John Adams, Magnus Lindberg, Howard Shore and James MacMillan.

Stephen Doughty is Chorus Director of the RSNO Chorus and enjoys a varied career as a freelance musician. Commencing his appointment of the RSNO Chorus in September 2022, he previously spent 13 years as the Chorus Master of Belfast Philharmonic Choir who, in addition to their regular performances with the Ulster Orchestra, have given a number of world premieres. He particularly enjoys working with amateur singers and is Musical Director of Edinburgh Bach Choir (since 2017) and has been Musical Director of the Garleton Singers since 1994. Over the years he has also run several, highly-successful ‘come & sing’ events raising funds for a number of charities.

Stephen held the position of Director of Music of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Edinburgh for 18 years, directing the 30-voice choir through the full range of sung services which also included large-scale, orchestrally-accompanied services during the Edinburgh Festival.

As a keyboard player, he plays harpsichord/organ continuo and orchestral piano with all the Scottish orchestras as well as the Ulster Orchestra and has given frequent organ recitals including several four-star recitals on the grand Mulholland Organ in the Ulster Hall, Belfast.

He has compiled a large portfolio of arrangements and orchestrations, particularly for young voices and has received commissions from Children’s Classic Concerts, Ulster Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Recent orchestrations include the premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Seek him that maketh the seven stars and a classical/folk crossover with award-winning band Dallahan marking the anniversary of the Battle of Loos. In addition, the BBC have commissioned a number of arrangements which have been performed at Proms in the Park and BBC Alba and his pieces feature on several recordings.

Finally, he is an Examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.