| Biography | The Cornish-born baritone, Richard Jackson, (born 1960) was a founder member of The Songmakers' Almanac, visiting the USA, Hong Kong and the festivals of Edinburgh, Bath, Aldeburgh and Bergen. He has taught both German and French Song at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at Trinity College of Music. He is in increasing demand as leader of Master-classes from Baroque music to German and French Song and has given recent Masterclasses at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Welsh College of Music, at the Birmingham Conservatoire and as far afield as the Australian National Academy of Music. As an adjudicator Richard judges competitions at several of the London Colleges and was on the panel for the National Mozart Competition in 1998 and 1999.
Richard Jackson's operatic engagements have included Aeneas Dido & Aeneas opposite Janet Baker, Strauss' Capriccio for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Eugene Onegin at the Aldeburgh Festival under Rostropovich and Mozart's La Finta Giardinera for Opera North. A contemporay music specialist he has performed Menotti's Maria Golovin directed by the composer at the Camden Festival, the British premiere of Rihm's Jakob Lenz directed by Pierre Audi and Stephen Oliver's Mario and the Magician both for the Almeida Festival. Other opera projects have included Evangelist and Testo in Monteverdi/Weir's Missa e Combattimento for Ensemble Interculturel at La Monnaie, Nicola Lefanu's The Wildman at the Aldeburgh Festival and more recently Kevin O'Connell's new opera My Love, My Umbrella with Opera Theatre Company on tour through England and Ireland and at the Jugendtheater in Düsseldorf and Guo Wenjing's Chinese opera Wolf Cub Village for the Almeida Theatre
Richard Jackson extensive concert work has included appearances with David Willcocks, Neville Marriner, Bertini, John Eliot Gardiner and Richard Hickox. He has performed George Frideric Handel's Belshazzar at the Bath Festival, Christus in Jonathan Miller's dramatisation of J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) at the Festival D'Ambronay in France, the UK and Spain, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall and St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with Richard Hickox and the City of London Sinfonia at the Barbican. Recent engagements have included a concert at the Purcell Room with music by the contemporary American composer Henry Brant, an opera workshop with the English National Opera Contemporary Opera Studio and the composer Julian Grant performing his latest chamber opera Chemistry and Romeo II in a concert performance of Pascal Dusapin's opera Romeo et Juliette at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
Richard Jackson's many recordings include several in the Songmakers' series for Hyperion, Volume 12 in the Hyperion Schubert Edition with Graham Johnson, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera and B. Britten's Purcell Realisations, both for Hyperion, J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) for United Records and Rameau's Naïs with Nicholas McGegan and the English Bach Festival Orchestra for Erato.
Richard Jackson's recent recital work has included a concert at the Wigmore Hall to celebrate the 70th Birthday of Erich Sams, a recital of Shakespeare settings at the Philharmonie in Berlin, a programme devised by Graham Johnson based on Strauss' Capriccio for the Songmakers' Almanac at the Wigmore Hall, a recital of early twentieth century French Song for BBC Radio 3, recitals with Graham Johnson for the Songmakers' Almanac in Munich and at the Wigmore Hall, as well as appearances at the Rye Festival and at the Austrian Embassy. |