| Biography | The English bass-baritone, Christoher Foster, was educated at Newcastle University and the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies. He 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 Allens inaugural singing course at The Samlings in the Lake District.
Christoher Foster's 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, Marc Minkowski, Phillipe Herreweghe, Frieder Bernius and Joshua Rifkin. This includes concerts in Madrid of Messiah at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica, J.S. Bach's B minor Mass (BWV 232) at the Teatro Monumental (for Spanish Television), the Latvian premiere of Edward Elgars Dream of Gerontius, two concerts in a Stravinsky Festival in Luxembourg and a performance of Messiah in the Concert Hall of the Forbidden City, Beijing.
Christopher Foster has appeared on radio broadcasts in France, Belgium and at home on BBC Radio 3. These have included J.S. Bachs St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) for the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts on two occasions, Bruchs Schön Ellen and the world premiere of Donizettis cantata Christopher Columbus, Robert Schumanns Manfred and Igor Stravinskys Le Rossignol (both at the Royal Festival Hall), the world premiere of Benjamin Brittens The Rescue of Penelope in the Aldeburgh Festival and Ferruccio Busonis Arlecchino (both at Snape Maltings).
Christoher Foster's operatic roles include Mozarts Figaro (Kentish Opera, First Act Opera) and Count Almaviva (covered for Sir John Eliot Gardiner), Don Alfonoso in Cosi fan tutte (Britten-Pears School), Massetto in Don Giovanni, Alidoro in La Cenerentola (First Act Opera), Germont Pere (Pavilion Opera), Baron Duophol (Clonter Opera) in La Traviata, Marcello in La Bohème Bohème (Opera del Mar), Morales and El Dancairo in Carmen (Pavilion Opera), Marullo in Rigoletto (Pavilion Opera), Arthur in Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse, Sam in Leonard Bernsteins Trouble in Tahiti (Gent, Belgium) and Nick Shadow in The Rakes Progress (studied at the Britten-Pears School).
His recordings include Purcells Timon of Athens conducted by Trevor Pinnock and J.S. Bachs Cantata BWV 34 conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner both for Deutsche Grammophon. |