Christopher Foster (Bass-Baritone)

Born: England

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 Allen’s 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, the B minor Mass (BWV 232) at the Teatro Monumental (for Spanish Television), the Latvian premiere of Edward Elgar’s 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 Bach’s St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) for the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts on two occasions, Bruch’s Schön Ellen and the world premiere of Donizetti’s cantata Christopher Columbus, Schumann’s Manfred and Igor Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol (both at the Royal Festival Hall), the world premiere of Benjamin Britten’s The Rescue of Penelope in the Aldeburgh Festival and Ferruccio Busoni’s Arlecchino (both at Snape Maltings).

Christoher Foster's operatic roles include Mozart’s 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 Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti (Gent, Belgium) and Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress (studied at the Britten-Pears School).

His recordings include Purcell’s Timon of Athens conducted by Trevor Pinnock and J.S. Bach’s Cantata BWV 34 conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner both for Deutsche Grammophon.

Source: Singers Direct Website
Contributed by Christopher Foster (November 2003)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

John Eliot Gardiner

Bass

BWV 34

Links to other Sites

Christopher Foster – Bass-Baritone (Singers Direct)