Mark Padmore

Mark Padmore was born in London and began his musical studies as a clarinettist. He gained a choral scholarship to King's College, Cambridge and graduated in 1982. He has established a reputation for intelligent and stylish singing in a large and varied repertoire and is particularly well-known for his interpretations of the Evangelist in Bach's Passions. He is also much in demand as a song recitalist.

In the opera house he has worked with many leading directors including Peter Brook, Mark Morris, Katie Mitchell and Deborah Warner. He has sung with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Opera de Paris, Opera de Lausanne, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at the Aix-en-Provence and Mostly Mozart, New York festivals. In 2003 he received great critical acclaim for performances of the title rôle in Handel's Jephtha with Welsh National Opera and for the rôle of Iopas in Les Troyens at le Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris.

As a concert artist he regularly appears in the world's greatest concert halls and festivals. He has performed the Bach Passions with Sir Colin Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Simon Rattle. Recent engagements include Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, Mozart's Requiem with Franz Welser-Möst and the London Symphony Orchestra, Les Nuits d'Eté with Gardiner and the Czech Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, L'Enfance du Christ with Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and St.Matthew Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Recent recital appearances include the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Frick Collection in New York, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Aldeburgh Festival and the BBC Proms. His collaborators include Julius Drake, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles and Andrew West and he also appears regularly with the Nash Ensemble. In 2004 he has recorded two recital discs for Hyperion  contempories of Schubert with Graham Johnson and a recital of Britten, Tippett and Finzi with Roger Vignoles.

He has an important discography of more than 50 recordings including St Matthew Passion with Paul McCreesh for DG, St John Passion with Philippe Herreweghe, Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie and Zoroastre with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, Don Giovanni with Daniel Harding and Billy Budd with Richard Hickox and the LSO.

Future engagements include the Bach Passions with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics and the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Chailly, Stravinsky's Les Noces with Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, Britten's War Requiem at the Edinburgh Festival and Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Tonhalle Orchestra conducted by Peter Schreier.