Matthew Brook
Bass Baritone
Matthew Brook has appeared as a soloist throughout Europe, Australia, South Africa and the Far East. He has worked with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Richard Hickox, Sir Charles Mackerras, Harry Christophers, Christophe Rousset and Paul McCreesh, and many orchestras and groups including the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the English Baroque Soloists, the City of London Sinfonia, Collegium Vocale Gent, the Gabrieli Consort, the Sixteen, and Orchestra Nationale de Lille. As a soloist and former member of I Fagiolini he has performed at many of Europe’s top festivals, including Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Utrecht, the BBC Proms, Ambronay, La Chaise Dieu, Innsbruck and the Bermuda Festival. He has appeared regularly at the Three Choirs Festival, often singing newly commissioned works, most recently by Frances Grier and Anthony Powers.
Matthew’s operatic roles include Polyphemus Acis and Galatea, Ismeron in Purcell's The Indian Queen, Aeneas Dido and Aeneas, the title role in Eugene Onegin, Sacristan Tosca, Noye Noye's Fludde, Papageno The Magic Flute, Figaro The Marriage of Figaro, Leporello Don Giovanni, John Bunyan and Lord Hategood in Vaughan Williams's The Pilgrim’s Progress, Melchior in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Young Sam in the British premiere of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, Vicar Albert Herring, Jupiter in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux in Paris with Gardiner, Starek and Mayor Jenufa, Antenor and Calkas in Walton’s Troilus and Cressida with the Philharmonia and Hickox for the BBC, and Counsel Trial By Jury recorded recently on the Chandos label with Hickox and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He took part in a European tour with the English Baroque Soloists and Gardiner singing the roles of Don Alfonso and Bartolo in venues including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Salle Pleyel, Paris, Teatro Real, Madrid and Giuseppe Verdi Opera House, Pisa.
Matthew's many recordings include Mozart’s Requiem with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Tenebrae and Nigel Short (Warner Classics); Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with Richard Hickox and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, broadcast on BBC Television; a Gramophone Award-winning recording of Handel’s Dublin score of Messiah, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, and, most recently, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, all with the Dunedin Consort for Linn Records. He has also recorded for Chandos, Hyperion, Naxos, and for EMI in a recording of Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. He has also recently recorded for DVD the acclaimed production of "The Full Monteverdi" with I Fagiolini.
On the concert platform Matthew has performed Brahms’ Requiem with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, Bach’s B Minor Mass and Haydn’s Harmoniemesse with the Dresden Staatskapelle, Elijah and Christmas Oratorio in Norway, Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Christmas Cantatas with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Leipzig, Spain, Rome, Verona, Frankfurt, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and London. He has also toured as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with Gardiner in San Francisco and at the Lincoln Centre, New York. Matthew sang bass solos in the St John Passion with the OAE and Mark Padmore at Snape Maltings, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Bristol, and will tour Europe, Korea and Japan in 2008 with the same piece. Matthew is an active song recitalist with his accompanist, Anna Markland, former BBC Young Musician of the Year, and together they have enjoyed great success performing Schubert’s Winterreise. Recent performances include Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Ned Keene in Britten’s Peter Grimes, Watchful, Obstinate and First shepherd in Vaughan Williams’s A Pilgrim’s Progress, all with Hickox, Haydn’s The Seasons in Turin and Innsbruck with Gardiner, and Reinhard Keiser’s Brockes Passion and Campra’s Requiem with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques.
Engagements this season and beyond include Nielsen’s Symphony no. 3 with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder; Bach’s Mass in B minor with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe; recording the role of Friar Tuck in Sullivan’s Ivanhoe for Chandos Records; Zuniga in Carmen at the Opera Comique in Paris with Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Bach’s St Matthew Passion for the Netherlands Bach Society; Bach’s St John Passion with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Oleg Caetani; his debut appearance with the Tonhalle-Orchester, Zurich in a concert of Bach Cantatas conducted by Marcus Creed; Handel’s Apollo e Dafne with Retrospect Ensemble and Matthew Halls; Haydn’s The Seasons with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir; Mozart’s Requiem with the City of London Sinfonia; and Messiah in Boston with Harry Christophers and the Handel and Haydn Society and with the Sixteen.