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Artists
Emma Kirkby ~ Soprano
Originally, Emma Kirkby had no expectations of becoming a professional
singer. As a classics student at Oxford and then a schoolteacher
she sang for pleasure in choirs and small groups, always feeling
at home most in Renaissance and Baroque repertoire. She joined
the Taverner Choir in 1971 and in 1973 began her long association
with the Consort of Musicke. Emma took part in the early Decca
Florilegium recordings with both the Consort of Musicke and the
Academy of Ancient Music, at a time when most college-trained
sopranos were not seeking a sound appropriate for early music
instruments. She therefore had to find her own approach, with
enormous help from Jessica Cash in London, and from the directors,
fellow singers and instrumentalists with whom she has worked
over the years.
To date, she has made well over a hundred recordings of all kinds,
from sequences of Hildegarde of Bingen to madrigals of the Italian
and English Renaissance, cantatas and oratorios of the Baroque,
and works of Mozart and Haydn. Her most recent recordings include
a second volume of Handel opera arias for Hyperion, Bach wedding
cantatas for Decca and Christmas music by Scarlatti and Bach
with London Baroque for BIS.
Mrs. Kirkby Emma still prefers live concerts however, especially
the pleasure of repeating programmes with colleagues; every occasion,
every venue and every audience will combine to create something
new from this wonderful repertoire. (©
11/2003 Konzertagentur Esslinger)
Melinda
Paulsen ~ Mezzo-Soprano
The American mezzo-soprano (and contralto), Melinda Paulsen,
studied music at the Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, the
USA. With ‘Bachelor of Arts’ with honour she came in
1988 to Germany and continued her singing study at the Munich
College of Music with Professor Daphne Evangelatos in the master
class which she finished in 1991. During this time she extended
her repertoire with Professor Helmut Deutsch in the area of Lieder
and Professor Diethard Hellmann in the oratorio. Afterwards she
was engaged by the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera,
where she compiled opera roles with Astrid Varnay and participated
in different productions in the national theatre. In 1992 she
won the second prize (a first price was not assigned) in the
renowned international ARD competition.
Melinda Paulsen sings with renowned conductors such as Helmuth
Rilling, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos,
Marek Janowski and Roberto Abbado. An appearance led Melinda
Paulsen in 1996 to Klagenfurt for a new production of the Mozart’s
La Finta Giardiniera (direction: Christof Loy), where her Don
Ramiro became a critic success. She appeared at important international
festivals, such as Wratislavia Cantans in Poland and the Bregenz
Festival in Austria and in Maulbronn in Händel’s Jephta
with Emma Kirkby. At present she is also assigned training for
singing at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
Apart from her activities in the opera scene Melinda Paulsen
is sought-after as Lieder and concert singer. She has made several
CD recordings, e.g. Ersteinspielungen wie Lieder of Nadia Boulanger,
or the Mozart’s concert aria Ch'io mi scordi di te? with
original instruments. The fact that her organization strength
does not make stop also with works of Bach is held among other
things in her participation in the current Bavarian Broadcast
series of Bach Cantatas. She is to be heard also as contralto
singer recording of Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248)
under Enoch zu Guttenberg. To her opera recordings belong the
role Isaura in Rossini’s Tancredi and the role of Puck in
Weber’s Oberon.
Charles
Humphries ~ Countertenor
Charles Humphries studied at the Royal Academy of Music with
Charles Brett, Michael Chance and James Bowman, and continues
his studies with Paul Farrington. He appears regularly as a soloist,
not only alongside the recognized baroque ensembles of Britain,
but also in his own right throughout the UK and Europe. These
appearances include venues such as the Barbican Hall, the Queen
Elizabeth Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam
and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels as well as the cities
of Copenhagen, Oslo, Prague and Warsaw. Conductors that he has
worked for as a soloist include Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Richard
Hickox, Robert King, Paul McCreesh, Nicholas McGegan and James
O’Donnell.
Operatic engagements have included Delfa Giasone (Cavalli) at
the Megaron, Athens, the title–role in Pompeo Magno (Cavalli)
at the Varazdin Festival of Baroque Music, Croatia, Lichas Hercules
at the Hans–Otto Theater, Potsdam, the title–role in
Lucio Silla at the Handel Festival, Karlsruhe, the title–role
in Tamerlano for the Britten–Pears School and The Sorceress
Dido and Aeneas for the King’s Consort. Recent concert highlights
have included the Chichester Psalms with the BBC National Orchestra
of Wales, Hamor Jephtha at the Lufthansa Baroque Festival, televised
performances of Judas Maccabaeus in Slovenia, Messiah with the
Ulster Orchestra under Nicholas Kraemer, Monteverdi Vespers 1610
at the BBC Proms, Pergolesi Stabat Mater with the Northern Chamber
Orchestra and a recital at the Halle Festival with Trevor Pinnock.
Charles Humphries recently sang Tolomeo Giulio Cesare for the
Norwegian National Opera. His recordings include Jephtha and
Judas Maccabaeus (K&K Verlagsanstalt), Messiah (Capriccio)
and Vivaldi Cantatas (ASV).
Julian
Podger - Tenor
In 1987 he received a choral scholarship to study music at Trinity
College, Cambridge. Today, Julian Podger is a much asked for
oratorio soloist. He has recorded the arias of Bach's St. John
Passion with the Scholars Baroque Ensemble and regularly performs
as Evangelist. He has appeared regularly as a soloist for Paul
McCreesh, Christopher Hogwood, John Eliot Gardiner and with Musica
Antiqua Köln under Reinhard Goebel. He is also a member
of one of the word's leading medieval ensembles, Gothic Voices,
under Christopher Page, and a regular member of the Gabrieli
Consort, London Baroque, the Tallis Scholars and the Harp Consort.
Stephen
Varcoe ~ Bass
The English bass-baritone, Stephen (Chistopher) Varcoe, studied
at Cambridge, and during his school years there he sang in the
King’s College Choir. In 1977 he won a scholarship from
the Gulbenkian Foundation.
Stephen Varcoe has established a reputation as one of Britain's
most versatile baritones, and has sung in opera, concerts and
recitals covering a wide range of repertoire in Europe, the USA
and the Far East. He is often to be heard performing Bach Cantatas,
Songs from Schubert, and Victorian Ballads. His musical repertoire
is quite extensive and reaches into modern music. An area of
emphasis, however, is compositions from the time of Bach and
Händel. Stephen has always been fascinated by the relationship
between words and music, and the role of the singer in communicating
meaning to an audience and is currently writing a book on singing
in English. He is in constant demand for Master Classes as a
specialist in German lieder and English songs, having taught
at many UK Universities and Colleges. Stephen Varcoe's operatic
appearances include Haydn's L'Infedelta Delusa in Antwerp, Debussy's
Fall of The House of Usher in Lisbon and London, John Tavener's
opera Mary Of Egypt for the Aldeburgh Festival and Plutone in
Peri's Euridice for the Drottningholm Festival, Sweden. His repertoire
also includes Death in Holst's Savitr, Demetrius in Britten's
A Midsummer Night's Dream and Salieri in Rimsky Korsakov's Mozart
& Salieri.
Stephen Varcoe has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra,
the Ulster Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the St
Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio
France, New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, the Hanover Band, at the
Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal, at the National Arts Centre
Orchestra, Ottawa, with the King’s Consort, at the Festival
Cervantino in Mexico, and with conductors Frans Brüggen,
Daniel, John Eliot Gardiner, Richard Hickox, Lindberg, Charles
Mackerras, Malgoire, Minkowski, Östman, Trevor Pinnock,
Joshua Rifkin, Roszdevensky and Tortelier. Recent engagements
have included Goehr's Sonata About Jerusalem with Knussen and
the Schoenberg Ensemble, Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244)
with Trevor Pinnock in Ottawa, Bach Cantatas with the Bach Sonnerie
at the Spitalfields Festival, Vaughan-Williams' Sir John In Love
with Richard Hickox and the Northern Sinfonia, Webern Cantata
II with Simon Joly and The BBC Symphony Orchestra, Schubert's
Mass in E flat with Roger Norrington and the Vienna Symphony
Orchestra and Messiah with Steuart Bedford the City of London
Sinfonia.
Stephen Varcoe appears regularly in recital in England and abroad
and is heard frequently in recital with the Songmakers' Almanac
and on BBC Radio 3. Recent recital work has included a programme
of Finzi and Somervell with Iain Burnside, Schubert's Winterreise
with Eugene Asti, Brahms, Schumann and Wolf at the Wigmore Hall
with Graham Johnson, Grainger with Penelope Thwaites for BBC
Radio 3 and Schubert and with Graham Johnson at the Bury St Edmund's
Festival.
Stephen Varcoe has made over 100 recordings including Purcell,
Händel and Bach with Pinnock, John Eliot Gardiner, Richard
Hickox and Sigiswald Kuijken, Mozart with Neville Marriner, Fauré
with Rutter, Holst with Richard Hickox, Richard Strauss with
Roger Norrington, recitals of Finzi and Parry with Clifford Benson
and French songs with Graham Johnson, with whom he recorded Volume
2 in the Hyperion Schubert edition. He has also recorded Haydn
and Grainger for Chandos with Richard Hickox and the City of
London Sinfonia, Schoenberg with Robert Craft and The 20th Century
Classics Ensemble and Stravinsky with Robert Craft and The Orchestra
of St. Luke's.
Maulbronn Chamber Choir (Maulbronner Kammerchor)
The Maulbronn Chamber Choir was founded by its director, Jürgen
Budday, in 1983 and is one of the top choirs in Germany today.
In addition to learning a baroque oratorio, the ensemble compiles
a sacred and secular a-cappella programme every year, its focal
point being 19th and 20th century literature. First prize at
the Baden Württemberg Choir Competition in 1989 and 1997,
second prize at the Third German Choir Competition in Stuttgart
in 1990, and a victory at the Fifth German Choir Competition
in Regensburg in 1998 document the chamber choir's extraordinary
musical standard. The Maulbronn Chamber Choir has received, among
others, invitations to the Ettlingen Palace Festival, the chamber
music series of the Dresden Philharmonic, the cloister concerts
at the Walkenried convent, the First International Festival of
Sacred Music in Rottenburg, and the European Music Festival in
Passau. The choir has also made a name for itself internationally.
The 1983 debut tour through the USA with concerts in, among others,
New York and Indianapolis, and the participation in the Festival
of Music in New Harmony, Indiana, as well as concert tours through
numerous European countries, Israel, Argentina (1993 and 1997),
South Africa, and Namibia (2001) were all greeted with similar
enthusiasm by the public and critics alike. The third tour through
South America followed in autumn 2003 with concerts in Argentina
and Uruguay.
Jürgen Budday (Conductor)
 Jürgen Budday is director of church
music and artistic director of the concert series at the monastery
of Maulbronn, of the cantor choir and of the Maulbronn Chamber
Choir. He studied music education, church music and musicology
at the Academy of Music in Stuttgart and, since 1979, has taught
at the Evangelic Theology Seminar in Maulbronn. For his teaching
and artistic activity, he has received many awards, including
the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (German Cross of Merit) and
the Bruno-Frey Prize from the State Academy, Ochsenhausen. Since
2002, Jürgen Budday has also held the chair of the choral
committee of the German Music Council. Several concert recordings
have been made under his artistic direction. They have often
received international recognition and high praise from critics.
These have included the Handel oratorios Jephtha, Samson, Judas
Maccabaeus and Saul with Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Nancy Argenta
and Stephen Varcoe.
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