Marcus Farnsworth
Baritone
Media
with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Gergely Madaras. 2016
News
January sees Marcus Farnsworth singing in a concert of Purcell’s semi-opera King Arthur with Vox Luminis, conducted by Lionel Meunier, at the Salle Gaveau in Paris.
MORENews
This autumn, Marcus appears in recital at the Snape Maltings in Suffolk singing Britten’s Songs and Proverbs of William Blake. This concert, which forms part of the 50th anniversary of...
MORENews
Baritone Marcus Farnsworth brought bags of character to his assorted roles, so said The Times following concert performances of Candide with the London Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop in December,...
MORE“As dangerous Eddy, the award-winning young baritone Marcus Farnsworth is electrifying. He has no trouble with the demotic accent and conveys the character’s anger, panic and perky charm with intensity and empathy. He also has an instinctive musicality that never makes the vocal line sound over-studied or phoney. He must have a great career ahead of him.”
Marcus Farnsworth is a past first prize-winner of the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition and has performed many times at the Wigmore Hall with Malcolm Martineau, Julius Drake, Graham Johnson, James Baillieu as well as the Myrthen Ensemble with Joseph Middleton and the Nash Ensemble.
Highlights
- Richard Strauss – Harlequin Ariadne auf Naxos – Garsington Opera
- John Adams Doctor Atomic; Turnage The Silver Tassie– BBC Symphony Orchestra
- Bill Bobstay HMS Pinafore; Strephon Iolanthe; Guglielmo Cosi fan Tutte – English National Opera
- Bach Matthew Passion– Antwerp Symphony Orchestra
- Candide and James McMillan’s St John Passion – London Symphony Orchestra
- Street Scene– Kurt Weill – Teatro Real Madrid
Biography
He has also appeared in recital at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and La Monnaie, Brussels with Julius Drake; on a UK tour of Schubert Winterreise with James Baillieu; for Leeds Lieder with Graham Johnson and at Opéra de Lille with Simon Lepper.
His regular appearances for English National Opera include Guglielmo Così fan tutte, Strephon Iolanthe and Bill Bobstay in HMS Pinafore. This season he will make his debut at Garsington Opera singing Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos.
In the current season he will also give recitals at Snape Maltings with Malcolm Martineau as part of their Britten Song Project; the Fundacion Juan March Madrid with Sholto Kynoch; sing orchestrated Schubert songs with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra; appear at the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival and undertake two European tours of Purcell King Arthur with the Gabrieli Consort and Vox Luminis.
Past highlights include Candide with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop, Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King at the BBC Proms with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group conducted by Sian Edwards, HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!! with the Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon in Cologne and his debut at Teatro Real Madrid in Kurt Weill Street Scene.
Previous operatic roles include Sid in Britten Albert Herring in concert with the BBC SO and Ned Keene Peter Grimes at the Edinburgh International Festival and on tour and recorded with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner; Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream on tour with the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Eddy in Turnage Greek for Boston Lyric Opera.
As well as many new works, including Colin Matthews The Great Journey at the Worcester Three Choirs Festival; Turnage The Silver Tassie, the world première of Cheryl Hoad’s Last Man Standing and Hubbard in John Adams’ Doctor Atomic conducted by the composer with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Marcus’s expansive concert repertoire includes Britten War Requiem; Elgar The Apostles; Orff Carmina Burana; Berlioz L’enfance du Christ and the Brahms and Fauré Requiem with conductors including François-Xavier Roth, Paul McCreesh and Bernard Labadie.
He has also sung Bach St Matthew Passion and St John Passions (Christus and Arias) with many symphony and period orchestras, most recently with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Gabrieli Consort.
Marcus is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Southwell Music Festival.
This biography should not be edited without permission from Maxine Robertson Management.Contact:
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Email: mr@maxinerobertson.com