ROBIN BLAZE
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 now holds an Associate Professorship.
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, Pinnock, Suzuki. He has visited festivals in Ambronay, Arolsen, Barossa Valley, Beaune, Boston, Halle, Jerusalem, 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 La Chapelle Royale, City of London Sinfonia, CM90, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Northern Sinfonia Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Tafelmusik.
His opera engagements have included Bertarido in Rodelinda at the Göttingen Handel Festival/McGegan and Anfinomo in Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria at the Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisbon with The Sixteen/Harry Christophers.
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 at the Théâtre Grévin in Paris, in Karlsruhe, Göttingen, for BBC Radio 3 and has appeared at The Wigmore Hall with Graham Johnson. His lute song programmes with Elizabeth Kenny are popular throughout Europe and Japan.
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 his recent projects with Hyperion include two recital discs of lute songs with Elizabeth Kenny 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, Blow and Gibbons Anthems with the Choir of Winchester Cathedral /David Hill all for Hyperion and Purcell Odes with Collegium Vocale Gent/Herreweghe for Harmonia Mundi
Robin will visit the festivals at Göttingen, Innsbruck, Gloucester Three Choirs and Edinburgh this summer. In the 2001/02 season he sings Bertarido in Rodelinda for Glyndebourne Touring Opera and makes debut appearances with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. 2002/03 engagements include US tours with Bach Collegium Japan and The King's Consort as well as his Royal Opera House debut as Athamas in Semele with Sir Charles MacKerras and Didymus, Theodora for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He will return to Göttingen in 2004 for the title role of Handel's Rinaldo.
