Robin Blaze

Counter Tenor

Now established in the front rank of interpreters of Purcell, Bach and Handel, Robin Blaze's busy schedule has taken him to Europe, South America, North America, Japan and Australia. He read Music at Magdalen College, Oxford and won a post-graduate scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he trained with assistance from the Countess of Munster Trust and is now a Professor of Vocal Studies.

He works with most of the distinguished conductors in the early music field - Christophers, Cleobury, Gardiner, Herreweghe, Hickox, Hogwood, Jacobs, King, Koopman, Kraemer, Leonhardt, McCreesh, McGegan, MacKerras, Pinnock, and Suzuki. He has visited festivals in Ambronay, Beaune, Boston, Edinburgh, Halle, Iceland, Jerusalem, Innsbruck, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Lucerne, Saintes and Utrecht. He regularly appears with The Academy of Ancient Music, Bach Collegium Japan, Collegium Vocale, The English Concert, The Gabrieli Consort, The King’s Consort, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, RIAS Kammerchor and The Sixteen. Other engagements have included the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington, The St Paul Chamber Orchestra, La Chapelle Royale, City of London Sinfonia, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, The Hallé Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Robin’s opera engagements have included Athamas Semele at The Royal Opera House; Didymus Theodora for Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Arsamenes Xerxes, Athamas Semele, Hamor Jephtha and Oberon A Midsummer Night's Dream for English National Opera and Bertarido Rodelinda for Glyndebourne Touring Opera and at the Göttingen Handel Festival.

Chamber music is an important part of his musical life and Robin regularly joins forces with Concordia, Fretwork and The Palladian Ensemble. He has given recitals in Tenerife, at the Théâtre Grévin in Paris, in Karlsruhe, Innsbruck, Göttingen, at the York Early Music, West Cork International Chamber Music, Sherbourne and Gloucester Three Choirs Festivals, for BBC Radio 3 and at The Wigmore Hall.

With a fast-growing number of acclaimed recordings to his name Robin continues to enjoy fruitful relationships with BIS and Hyperion records. For BIS he is adding to their Cantata Cycle with Bach Collegium Japan and joined Carolyn Sampson for a disc of Handel Oratorio Duets with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Nicholas Kraemer. His projects with Hyperion have included recital discs of lute songs with Elizabeth Kenny, Byrd Consort Songs and Salve Regina, a programme of Italian Cantatas with The Parley of Instruments. Amongst his other recordings are Didymus in Theodora with The Gabrieli Consort/McCreesh for DG Archiv, Vivaldi, Kuhnau and Knüpfer with The King's Consort, all for Hyperion, and Purcell Odes with Collegium Vocale Gent/Herreweghe for Harmonia Mundi. He also recorded Thomas Adès’ The Lover in Winter for EMI.

Robin's future engagements include Guido Flavio with the Academy of Ancient Music / Christopher Hogwood, St Mathew Passion with Concerto Köln / Emmanuelle Haïm at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, as well as appearances with the Wiener Akademie / Martin Haselböck, the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington / Paul Goodwin and the Philharmonia Baroque / Nicholas McGegan.  He will also tour the US with Les Violons du Roy / Bernard Labadie and the Netherlands with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging / Gustav Leonhardt. His disc of solo Bach Cantatas with Masaaki Suzuki will be released in late 2007 on the BIS label.