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The English soprano, Ruth Holton, read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where she was a choral exhibitioner.
Ruth Holton made her first solo recording in Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) for Deutsche Grammophon under John Eliot Gardiner, and rapidly became well known for her performances of the Baroque and Classical repertoire. Ruth's discography includes Carissimi's Jephtha, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Bach cantatas with Gardiner and Ton Koopman, Mozart's Salzburg Masses, Händel's Messiah, Schütz's Christmas Story, Haydn's Nelson Mass, and most recently, Händel's Susanna with the Kölner Kammerchor.
The clarity of Ruth Holton's voice makes her a popular choice for contemporary music: she has given a programme of newly-commissioned works at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, has participated in a BBC television documentary with original music by Peter Salem, and recorded Grand Pianola Music by John Adams. She has sung in concerts and a recording of works by Steve Reich with Ensemble Modern. She has given first performances of the Te Deum by David Briggs (Three Choirs Festival), Gethsemane by Matthew King in the Spitalfields Festival, and Brian Inglis' In Sorrow and Joy in Bath.
Ruth Holton has appeared in many major European festivals, including Flanders, Greenwich, Cheltenham and Bath. She has performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Gustav Leonhardt in Rome and Vienna, and with Fretwork in Finland and Germany. At the millennium new year she was a soloist for Sir John Eliot Gardiner in performances of Bach Cantatas in Berlin. She has made regular appearances with the choir of St. Thomas' Leipzig in Bach's own church and on tour, and will be performing his Mass in B minor (BWV 232) in the Bachfest in 2000 on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death.
Ruth Holton is an experienced recitalist and has given concerts of Lieder and French Song in London, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Bath and Oxford. Plans for the current season include a performance of Haydn's Creation in the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford, Bach cantatas with the Monteverdi choir in Eton and the Orkney festival, and a newly commissioned Creation by David Briggs in Gloucester. She has recently (2000) completed a project to record all of Bach's sacred Cantatas with the Holland Boys Choir and Pieter Jan Leusink.
Ruth Holton is also head of vocal studies at St. Joseph's College, Beulah Hill, and was a visiting coach at an International Choral Symposium in Gdansk in August 1999. |
