Christopher Foster
Vaughan Williams – A Sea Symphony – 25 June 2011
Brahms – Ein Deutsches Requiem – 9 June 2012
Educated at Newcastle University and the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, Christopher was a winner of the N.F.M.S. Young Concert Artists’ Award and a finalist in the Richard Tauber Competition at The Wigmore Hall. He was also selected to take part in Thomas Allen’s inaugural singing course at The Samlings in the Lake District.His concert work has seen him perform throughout the UK and Europe with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia and Concerto Köln under conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Andrew Davis and Mark Minkowski. Highlights have included Mozart’s Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall; Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony in Darmstadt and performances of Handel’s Messiah in Madrid, televised at the Teatro Monumental and what is believed to be its first performance in English in China, given in the Concert Hall of the Forbidden City, Beijing.
Christopher has appeared in many festivals and in radio broadcasts in France, Belgium, Holland and at home. For BBC Radio 3, these have included two appearances in the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, both in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, with Joshua Rifkin and with Trevor Pinnock; Schumann’s Manfred and Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol, both at the Royal Festival Hall; and the world premiere of Britten’s The Rescue of Penelope for the Aldeburgh Festival.
In recent years, he has been increasingly in demand as a recitalist, his programmes of English song being especially well received. His operatic roles include Sam in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti (Gent, Belgium), Britten’s The Traveller in Curlew River (Hampstead and Highgate Festival), Mozart’s Figaro and Count Almaviva (covered for Sir John Eliot Gardiner), Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte (Britten-Pears School), Marcello in La Bohème and Arthur in Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse. His recordings include Purcell’s Timon of Athens conducted by Trevor Pinnock, Bach’s Cantata No. 34 conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner both for Deutsche Grammophon and Hotel Waiter in Britten’s Death in Venice, conducted by Richard Hickox CBE. Future concerts include: Brahms’ Requiemin this year’s Lake District Summer Music Festival.
