Carnegie Hall

The English Concert is an outstanding orchestra—exceptional in the world-renowned quality, ambition, and variety of its live and recorded output; unique in the zeal of its players for working and performing together; unwavering in its desire to connect with its audience around the world.

Under the artistic direction of Harry Bicket and Principal Guest Director Kristian Bezuidenhout, The English Concert has earned a reputation for combining urgency, passion, and fire with precision, delicacy, and beauty. The artistic partners it collaborates with reflect and enhance its pursuit of new ways to bring music to life. Joyce DiDonato, Dame Sarah Connolly, Iestyn Davies, Alison Balsom, Trevor Pinnock, Dominic Dromgoole, Tom Morris, and many more have brought their extraordinary skills to individual projects and continue to help the ensemble shape the way it performs.

One cornerstone of the orchestra’s annual cycle is its international Handel opera tour. Blossoming from an ongoing relationship with Carnegie Hall, the itinerary now regularly takes it to the Theater an der Wien, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Elbphilharmonie, and the Barbican Centre, and the roster of great halls continues to grow. Meanwhile, its regular London series allows it to explore a radically different path, presenting programs for its home audience that challenge and inspire the musicians. The English Concert is the associate orchestra at Garsington Opera.

Internationally renowned as an opera and concert conductor of distinction, Harry Bicket is especially noted for his interpretation of Baroque and Classical repertoire and since 2007 has been artistic director of The English Concert, one of Europe’s finest period orchestras. In 2013, following regular guest appearances at Santa Fe Opera, he became its chief conductor and in 2018 was appointed music director. Since taking up his position, he has conducted Così fan tutte, Fidelio, La finta giardiniera, Roméo et Juliette, Alcina, and Candide. In the 2019 season, he also performed Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Renée Fleming. Born in Liverpool, Mr. Bicket studied at the Royal College of Music and the University of Oxford.

Projects with The English Concert in the 2022–2023 season include tours to Europe and the United States with Handel’s Solomon and a fully staged Ariodante for the Opéra national de Paris’s Palais Garnier, in addition to their London season and recording projects. This season, Mr. Bicket also returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for a special collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet, as well as to the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Canadian Opera Company for Le nozze di Figaro, and Santa Fe Opera.

Mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg studied at the National College of Operatic Art in Stockholm. She regularly appears at leading opera houses and festivals that include the Bavarian and Berlin state operas, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, La Scala in Milan, Dutch National Opera, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra national de Paris, Royal Swedish Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Real in Madrid, Theater an der Wien, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Opernhaus Zurich, Salzburg Festival, Wiener Festwochen, the BBC Proms in London, and the Handel Festival in Halle. Her operatic repertoire includes works by Rossini, Mozart, Gluck, Massenet, Bizet, Handel, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi. Equally at home on the concert platform, she frequently appears at venues and festivals throughout Europe and North America. She has built an unusually large concert repertoire that spans music from the early–17th to the late–20th century.

Ms. Hallenberg has worked regularly with many of the world’s foremost conductors, including Ivor Bolton, William Christie, Teodor Currentzis, Patrick Fournillier, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuelle Haïm, Daniel Harding, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Järvi, Louis Langrée, Andrea Marcon, Cornelius Meister, Marc Minkowski, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Antonio Pappano, Christophe Rousset, and Alberto Zedda, among others. Her extensive discography includes CD and DVD recordings of works by composers who include J. S. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn, Gluck, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Bruckner. Two of her solo CDs won Best Operatic Recital awards at the International Opera Awards in London.

Internationally renowned Swedish soprano Miah Persson has performed roles that include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Pamina in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera; Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Zerlina in Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the title role in L’incoronazione di Poppea and the Governess in The Turn of the Screw at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala; Fiordiligi, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, and Susanna at the Vienna State Opera; the Governess, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress at the Glyndebourne Festival; Fiordiligi at the Bavarian and Hamburg state operas, the New National Theatre Tokyo, and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden; Iris in Michel van der Aa’s Sunken Garden at the Dallas Opera; L’incoronazione di Poppea at Carnegie Hall; and van der Aa’s Blank Out with Dutch National Opera for performances in Amsterdam, Rome, and New York.

Ms. Persson’s engagements in the 2022–2023 season include performances as the Governess in The Turn of the Screw with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in both Budapest and Vicenza, Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at Opéra national de Paris, Haydn’s The Creation with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and Verdi’s Requiem with the Oslo Philharmonic.

In concert, Ms. Persson has sung J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor at Teatro La Fenice; J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the BBC Proms with the London Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra; Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Basque National Orchestra, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Orchestre National de Lille; Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn for the Gulbenkian Foundation; Mozart’s Requiem with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; R. Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; and The Creation at the Verbier Festival.

Cuban American soprano Elena Villalón recently completed her tenure with the Houston Grand Opera Studio. A Grand Finals winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she most recently took home several prizes in the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition. In the 2022–2023 season, she joins the ensemble of Oper Frankfurt for her debut as Iole in Handel’s Hercules in a new production by Barrie Kosky, and Atalanta in Handel’s Serse; returns to Houston Grand Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and the Dallas Opera as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel; and presents a recital with the Tuesday Music Club in San Antonio, Texas.

Engagements in the 2021–2022 season included house and role debuts at the Dallas Opera as Tina in Jonathan Dove’s Flight and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at Austin Opera, as well as collaborations with Houston Grand Opera, where she created the role of Amy in the world premiere of Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day and debuted as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette. In concert, she appeared at the Kennedy Center as an emerging artist with Vocal Arts DC, as well as in Poulenc’s Gloria with the Grand Rapids Symphony and Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day with Boston Baroque. In the 2020–2021 season, Ms. Villalón appeared with Cincinnati Song Initiative and at the Rienzi Museum of Fine Arts as part of the studio recital series, and was featured in a concert of Baroque cantatas and arias with the Mercury Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Villalón has spent summers at the Tanglewood Music Center and at Songfest as a Colburn Fellow. At Tanglewood, performance highlights have included Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, Max in Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are, the world premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s In America, concerts of Bach cantatas conducted by John Harbison, and concerts and recitals curated by Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe, Margo Garrett, and Sanford Sylvan.

Tenor James Way has appeared with orchestras that include the BBC Scottish, City of Birmingham, Swedish Radio, and National symphony orchestras; Philharmonia and RTÉ Concert orchestras; Copenhagen and Munich philharmonics; Handel and Haydn Society; Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano; and L’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. Recent European engagements have included Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno with the Freiburger Barockorchester under René Jacobs, the title role in Handel’s Samson with John Butt and the Dunedin Consort, Monteverdi’s Vespers with Laurence Cummings and The English Concert for Garsington Opera, Handel’s Acis and Galatea with Les Arts Florissants, and Handel’s Messiah with Trevor Pinnock and the Freiburger Barockorchester and Les Arts Florissants under William Christie. Mr. Way’s recording of Purcell’s King Arthur with the Gabrieli Consort was named recording of the year by BBC Music Magazine.

Recent opera engagements have included the Son in Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias at the Glyndebourne Festival, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and King Arthur at the Staatsoper Berlin, the Holy Fool in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov at the Royal Festival Hall, Lechmere in Britten’s Owen Wingrave for Grange Park Opera, Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno for Opéra national de Montpellier, the Young King in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, the Ballad Singer in Owen Wingrave at the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh international festivals, Damon in Handel’s Acis and Galatea for the London Handel Festival, and Davy in Roxanna Panufnik’s new opera, Silver Birch, for Garsington Opera.

An avid recitalist, Mr. Way recently performed Wolf’s Italian Songbook with pianist Christopher Glynn, appearing at the Lammermuir Festival, St. George’s Hall in Liverpool, St. George’s Bristol, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Other recent highlights include performances at the Oxford Lieder, London Song, and Newbury festivals, as well as projects for the Devon Song Festival and SongSpiel. Mr. Way’s recording of Handel’s L’allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie will be released next year.

American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel is a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and he was an ensemble member of Oper Frankfurt from 2016 to 2019. Highlights of his 2021–2022 season included performances as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival, the title role in Hercules for the Karlsruhe Handel Festival, Dan Brown in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’s The Hours with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Zuniga in Carmen with Chicago Opera Theater.

Elsewhere, Mr. Cedel has sung Masetto in Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Leporello in Don Giovanni and Argante in Rinaldo at the Glyndebourne Festival, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia at Boston Lyric Opera, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Philadelphia, and Colline in La bohème and Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Canadian Opera Company. His many roles for Oper Frankfurt include Masetto, the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Billy Budd, Argante in Rinaldo, Ariodate in Xerxes, Angelotti in Tosca, Brander in La damnation de Faust, and Achior in Mozart’s La Betulia liberata. Upcoming engagements include returns to the Metropolitan Opera and the Glyndebourne Festival.

Praised for her “bewitchingly beautiful, dark vibrant voice” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Irish mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin under Veronica Dunne, and continued her studies at the Opera Studio of Munich’s Bavarian State Opera from 2016 to 2018. Her numerous operatic engagements in Munich include Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, the Secretary in Menotti’s The Consul, Flora in La traviata, and Barena in Jenůfa; in addition, she travelled with the company to Carnegie Hall for a concert performance of Der Rosenkavalier conducted by Kirill Petrenko. Other appearances include her 2018 Irish National Opera debut as Tisbe in La Cenerentola; the Third Maid in Elektra, also with Irish National Opera; and Cousser’s The Applause of Mount Parnassus at Wigmore Hall with Ensemble Marsyas and Peter Whelan. In concert, Ms. O’Sullivan has performed Elgar’s Sea Pictures at the Prinzregententheater as part of the Munich Festspiele, Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Münchner Hofkantorei, and Cain in Scarlatti’s oratorio Il primo omicidio with the Jakobsplatz Orchestra conducted by Daniel Grossmann.

In the 2021–2022 season, Ms. O’Sullivan made her Zurich Opera debut as Wellgunde in Das Rheingold, returning later in the season for Meg Page in Falstaff. She made numerous appearances with the Irish National Opera, including as Alva in the world premiere of Donnacha Dennehy’s The First Child; in addition, she sang Asteria in Vivaldi’s Bajazet at the Linbury Theatre and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and Mercédès in Carmen on tour across Ireland. She also made her Wexford Festival Opera debut as Paulina in Philippe Boesmans’s Ein Wintermarchen, appearing at the festival in recital and at a gala concert. In the 2022–2023 season, she appears as Mercédès in Carmen at the English National Opera, Charlotte in Werther with the Irish National Opera, and Wellgunde in Das Rheingold at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

One of the country’s leading professional vocal ensembles, The Clarion Choir has performed on some of the great stages of North America and Europe. It recently released its fourth recording, Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil, and its 2020 recording of Alexander Kastalsky’s Requiem reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Charts and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance. The Clarion Choir was founded by Artistic Director Steven Fox in 2006 and made its Lincoln Center debut in 2011, performing as part of the White Light Festival. In 2014, the choir gave the New York premiere of Passion Week by Maximilian Steinberg (a performance that was featured on PBS), and its recording of the work was nominated for a Grammy as well as BBC Music Magazine’s Choral Award. The choir’s second recording, Kastalsky’s Memory Eternal, also was nominated for a Grammy for Best Choral Performance and was Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice. The Clarion Choir has performed regularly in recent years as part of the MetLiveArts series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it has given presentations of large-scale Renaissance works by Victoria, Palestrina, Tavener, and Guerrero in the Medieval Sculpture Hall and the Met Cloisters. Last June, the choir led a Josquin Marathon at the Met Cloisters, performing the Flemish master’s instrumental and vocal works throughout the day in the different galleries of the museum. The Clarion Choir first collaborated with The English Concert and Harry Bicket on a tour of Handel’s Semele in 2019. The group has also collaborated in recent years with Susan Graham, Angel Blue, Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Knights and Eric Jacobsen, and Madonna at the 2018 Met Gala.

Steven Fox is artistic director of The Clarion Choir and The Clarion Orchestra in New York, and music director of the Cathedral Choral Society at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. In the 2022–2023 season, he makes conducting debuts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Ballet. In previous seasons, he has conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Opéra de Québec, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, Juilliard415, Charleston Symphony, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Portland’s Cappella Romana, and Toronto’s Theatre of Early Music. Mr. Fox was named an associate of London’s Royal Academy of Music in 2010, and received Grammy nominations for his first three recordings: Steinberg’s Passion Week (2016), Kastalsky’s Memory Eternal (2018), and Kastalsky’s Requiem (2020). Mr. Fox was also chorus master for the Grammy-winning recording of Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (2020). Mr. Fox graduated as a senior fellow with high honors in music and Russian from Dartmouth College, and with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. He founded Musica Antiqua St. Petersburg—Russia’s first period-instrument orchestra—at the age of 21, and premiered several important Russian 18th-century symphonic and operatic works with the orchestra. From 2008 to 2013, he was an associate conductor at New York City Opera, and in 2011, he served as assistant conductor for the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Program and Juilliard Opera. He has given master classes and clinics at the Royal Academy of Music, Dartmouth College, The Juilliard School, and Yale University, where he served for two years as preparatory conductor of the Yale Schola Cantorum.