STEPHEN VARCOE
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 has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Hanover Band, the Aarhus & Odense Symphony Orchestra, at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal, at the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa, with the Orquestra Pablo Sarasate in Pamplona, with the Kings Consort, at the Festival Cervantino in Mexico, throughout Europe with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, at the BBC Proms and with conductors Brüggen, Daniel, Gardiner, Hickox, Lindberg, Mackerras, Malgoire, Minkowski, Östman, Pinnock, Zehetmair, Rifkin, Roszdevensky and Tortelier. He took part in Jonathan Miller's dramatisation of Bach's St Matthew Passion in the UK, Spain and at the Festival d’Ambronay in France which was recorded for BBC TV and issued on CD. Other engagements have included Bach’s St John Passion with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Leonhardt, Goehr’s Sonata About Jerusalem with the Schoenberg Ensemble/Knussen, Handel’s Deborah with the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Bach with CM90 at the Lucerne International Easter Music Festival, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Trevor Pinnock in Ottawa, Bach Cantatas with the Bach Sonnerie at the Spitalfields Festival, Vaughan-Williams’ Sir John In Love with the Northern Sinfonia/Hickox, Webern Cantata II with The BBC Symphony Orchestra/Simon Joly, Schubert’s Mass In E Flat with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra/Norrington and Messiah with the City of London Sinfonia/Steuart Bedford.
Recital work has included a programme of Finzi and Somervell with Iain Burnside, Schubert’s Winterreise with Eugene Asti, a Lieder tour with Peter Seymour entitled The Rise Of The Lied (recorded for BBC Radio 3), Brahms, Schumann and Wolf at the Wigmore Hall with Graham Johnson, Grainger with Penelope Thwaites for BBC Radio 3, Schubert with Roger Vignoles in Belfast and with Graham Johnson at the Bury St Edmund’s Festival.
Stephen Varcoe has made over 125 recordings including Purcell, Handel and Bach with Pinnock, Gardiner, Hickox and Kuijken, Mozart with Marriner, Fauré with Rutter, Holst with Hickox, Richard Strauss with 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, a recording of English orchestral songs If There Were Dreams To Sell and Stanford’s Stabat Mater both with Hickox for Chandos, Grainger’s orchestral songs for Chandos/City of London Sinfonia/Hickox, Schoenberg’s Serenade Opus 24 with The 20th Century Classics Ensemble/Robert Craft and Stravinsky’s Abraham And Isaac with The Orchestra of St. Luke’s/Craft. His recent releases include discs of Chabrier, Beethoven and Hummel.
His 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 new opera Mary Of Egypt for the Aldeburgh Festival which was subsequently recorded for Collins Classics and Plutone in Peri’s Euridice for the Drottningholm Festival, Sweden and in Japan. His repertoire also includes Death in Holst’s Savitri, Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Salieri in Rimsky Korsakov’s Mozart & Salieri.
Stephen Varcoe is often invited to adjudicate song competitions, such as the Kathleen Ferrier awards.
