Carnegie Hall

Sir John Eliot Gardiner is revered as one of the world’s most innovative and dynamic musicians, and as a leader in the contemporary musical world. His work—as founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique—has made him a key figure of the early-music revival and historically informed performance practice.

Mr. Gardiner is a regular guest of the world’s leading symphony orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducting repertoire from the 16th to the 20th centuries. He has also conducted productions at the Vienna State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. From 1983 to 1988, he was artistic director of the Opéra National de Lyon, where he founded its new orchestra.

Mr. Gardiner’s broad repertoire is illustrated by his extensive catalog of award-winning recordings on both major labels and his own Soli Deo Gloria with the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, as well as other leading orchestras. He holds two Grammy Awards and has received more Gramophone Classical Music Awards than any other living artist.

Recent achievements with the ensembles include the award-winning Monteverdi 450 tour; a reprise of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, which toured to some of Europe’s most famous concert halls and churches; a five-year exploration of Berlioz’s major works to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death; and a landmark performance of Verdi’s Requiem at Westminster Cathedral to aid Cancer Research UK. In 2019, Mr. Gardiner conducted new productions of Handel’s Semele and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, and made debut performances in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, and Russia.

An authority on the music of J. S. Bach, Mr. Gardiner’s book Music in the Castle of Heaven was published in October 2013 by Allen Lane, earning the France Musique des Muses Prize. Among numerous awards in recognition of his work, Mr. Gardiner holds several honorary doctorates; he was elevated to knighthood for his services to music in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Jess Dandy’s 2019–2020 season includes appearances at the London Handel Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Hampstead Arts Festival, and Halle Handel Festival in performances of Handel’s Fernando, re di Castiglia and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, as well as in solo recitals. She tours to Europe and the US in Handel’s Rodelinda with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, to Scotland and South America in Handel’s Messiah with the Dunedin Consort, and to Barcelona for recital appearances. Other major performances from the season include Alex Mills’s Dear Marie Stopes at Kings Place, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at the Southbank Centre with Crouch End Festival Chorus, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major and Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore with the Thames Philharmonic Choir, Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil with the London Concert Choir, Bach’s St. John Passion with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Ms. Dandy’s other recent festival appearances include Handel’s Israel in Egypt at the Three Choirs Festival, Bach’s cantatas at the Edinburgh International Festival and his St. Matthew Passion at the Boston Early Music Festival (both with the Dunedin Consort), and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Ryedale Festival. She has performed Bach’s Mass in B Minor in Leipzig and his St. John Passion with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants on tour in Europe. Concert performances include Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with Douglas Boyd and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Handel’s Messiah with the Hallé Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Ms. Dandy is co-founder of SongPath, an initiative founded to promote walking and music-making in the context of mental health. She studied at Trinity College Cambridge and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She was the winner of the London Bach Society Singers Prize and the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform, and a finalist in Das Lied. She has been recognized by the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme and Heidelberger Frühling.

British bass Matthew Rose studied at the Curtis Institute of Music before becoming a member of the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Highlights of his 2019–2020 season include Leporello (Don Giovanni) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Claudio (Agrippina) and Colline (La bohème) at the Metropolitan Opera, Baron Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier) at La Monnaie, and Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress) at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Forthcoming concert highlights include Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at Carnegie Hall with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano, and the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic with Giancarlo Guerrero.

Mr. Rose’s recital appearances have included the Brighton, Chester, and Cheltenham festivals, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In concert, he has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, BBC Proms, and Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. Previous engagements also include the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis, Daniel Harding, and Michael Tilson Thomas; Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel; Staatskapelle Dresden with Sir Charles Mackerras; BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis, Jiří Bělohlávek, and Marc Minkowski; London Philharmonic Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique with Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Boston Symphony Orchestra with Charles Dutoit; and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Sir Antonio Pappano.

Recent performances include Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Tonkunstler Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Schubert’s Mass No. 5 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Kent Nagano, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski.

Mr. Rose’s recordings include Winterreise with Gary Matthewman and Schwanengesang with Malcolm Martineau (Stone Records). His most recent solo release is Arias for Benucci with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen (Hyperion).