Christopher Foster

Contact details:
chris@tisl.co.uk

www.singersdirect.org

With the Samling Foundation: I was the only baritone selected to take part in Tom's first residency. The course involved mostly solo workshops but we expanded these to duets and ensembles by the end of the week, culminating in an open day and an end of week concert. Under the guidance of Tom, Pat MacMahon, Simon Over and Malcolm Martineau I worked particularly on improving my levels of concentration and my consequent musical achievement. The repertoire ranged from Mozart to Finzi, via Duparc, Tchaikovsky and a host of other composers in between. It was a gruelling but hugely beneficial week under the microscope of this country's finest baritone.

Experiences: It was initially a slightly intimidating environment but as those first hours passed, the skill of the teachers and the beauty of the surroundings enabled us all to move forward as singers. I remember one session in particular on Bach's St Matthew Passion with Pat as a key that enabled me to unlock the experience of the week as a whole and to get the most out of the week. I shall remember the course for many years to come and if I took one thing away with me above anything else, it was identifying the level of concentration needed to perform at the highest level - it is a lesson I still strive to learn from, each time I stand on the concert platform or operatic stage.

Past Achievements: Educated at Newcastle University and the Britten-Pears School for
Advanced Musical Studies, Christopher was a winner of the N.F.M.S. Young Concert Artists' Award. He was a finalist in the Richard Tauber Competition at The Wigmore Hall and was also selected to take part in Thomas Allen's inaugural singing course at The Samlings in the Lake District .
His concert work has seen him perform throughout the UK and Europe with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Chapelle Royale, Vlaams Radio Orkest, Anima Eterna, and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Andrew Davis, Mark Minkowski, Phillippe Herreweghe, Frieder Bernius and Joshua Rifkin. This includes concerts in Madrid of The Messiah at the Auditorio Nacional de Música, the B minor Mass at the Teatro Monumental (for Spanish Television), the Latvian premiere of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, two concerts in a Stravinsky Festival in Luxembourg and a performance of The Messiah in the Concert Hall of the Forbidden City, Beijing.
Christopher has appeared on radio broadcasts in France, Belgium and at home on BBC Radio 3. These have included Bach's St. Matthew Passion for the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts on two occasions, Bruch's Schön Ellen and the world premiere of Donizetti's cantata Christopher Columbus, Schumann's Manfred and Stravinsky's Le Rossignol (both at the Royal Festival Hall), the world premiere of Britten's The Rescue of Penelope in the Aldeburgh Festival and Busoni's Arlecchino (both at the Snape Maltings).
His operatic roles include Mozart's Figaro (Kentish Opera) and Count Almaviva (covered for Sir John Eliot Gardiner), Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte (Britten-Pears School), Massetto in Don Giovanni, Alidoro in La Cenerentola, Germont Père in La traviata (Pavilion Opera), Marcello in La bohème, Morales and El Dancaïro in Carmen (Pavilion Opera), Marullo in Rigoletto (Pavilion Opera), Arthur in Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse and Sam in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti (Gent, Belgium). His recordings include Purcell's Timon of Athens conducted by Trevor Pinnock and Bach's Cantata No. 34 conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner both for Deutsche Grammophon.

Current and Forthcoming Activities: Christopher is shortly to go to Rouen Opera to cover the role of The Traveller in Curlew River for three performances in February 2003. Forthcoming oratorio work includes The Messiah in Norwich Cathedral, St John Passion (Christus) in Newcastle and the arias at Manchester Cathedral, Carmina Burana in Worthing and his first performance of Mahler's 8th Symphony, in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh.
On November 6th, 2003 he is giving a lunchtime recital of English and French songs at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, London. With the music of Butterworth, Somervell, Gurney, Bridge, Finzi, CW Orr Debussy and Poulenc 'A Soldier's Tale' will be told. From peacetime, to the journey towards war, the waiting, the longing for home, the battle and the aftermath and slowly back towards peacetime again. At the time of writing a repeat of this recital in King's Hall, Newcastle on November 13th is planned but, as yet, unconfirmed.

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