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The daughter of a choral conductor and a singer, the English mezzo-soprano, Clare Wilkinson, started her musical activities early, joining her father’s choir, The William Byrd Singers of Manchester, at 14 and giving her first professional solo concert with Musica Antiqua of London at 16. Clare went on to read Classics with a Choral Scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge she studied with David Lowe, performed regularly in oratorio and recital as well as in the consort sphere, ran her own vocal group, The Trinity Consort, and toured the world with the Chapel Choir under Richard Marlow.
After several years singing with many London groups (including The Cardinall’s Musick, Tenebrae, Trinity Baroque, The English Concert, The Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen) Clare Wilkinson took up a scholarship to study with Hazel Wood at Trinity College of Music, London, where she won the Early Music, Lieder, English Song and Oratorio/Cantata Prizes.
Now established as a soloist specialising in Renaissance and Baroque music, Clare Wilkinson sings with many distinguished ensembles. She has performed in many of the world’s major concert venues with The English Baroque Soloists/Sir John Eliot Gardiner (recently Bach’s St Matthew Passion (BWV 244), Magnificat (BWV 243) and Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream around Europe, Händel’s Dixit Dominus in the USA and Purcell’s The Tempest and Dido and Aeneas in the Far East). Other highlights include Bach’s St John Passion (BWV 245) at the Köln Philharmonie with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/Markus Stenz; the Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) with the Swedish Baroque Orchestra in Sweden and Norway; Bach’s St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with the Dunedin Consort/John Butt; consort songs at the Flanders and Périgord Noir Festivals with Fretwork; concerts at the York and Cambridge Early Music Festivals with Musica Antiqua of London; and regular concerts around the UK and abroad (most recently in Dartington, St Cecilia’s Hall Edinburgh, and Asfeld) with The Rose Consort of Viols.
Still a passionate vocal consort singer also, Clare Wilkinson is a member of I Fagiolini (winners in May 2006 of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award) with whom she has a busy schedule of concerts and tours. Recent projects include the critically acclaimed secret theatre piece The Full Monteverdi.
Future engagements include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) and Charpentier’s Pastorale with Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset, concerts in Poland with Fretwork, concerts in Warwick and Chesterfield with The Rose Consort of Viols, a recital at the William Byrd Festival in Portland, Oregon, a Vivaldi programme with Devon Baroque, and many projects with
I Fagiolini, inculding a DVD of The Full Monteverdi and a possible run of the same piece at The Lincoln Center, New York.
Clare Wilkinson features on numerous recordings, notably Fire and Ice and A Songbook for Isabella, both with Musica Antiqua of London. Recordings due for release in 2006-7 include ‘Cruel Amour’, a disk of airs by Sebastien le Camus with the Maresienne Consort, Händel’s Messiah with the Dunedin Consort/John Butt, lute songs by Verdelot on newly-formed ensemble Alamire’s debut CD, English consort songs with The Rose Consort of Viols and ‘Flaming Heart’, a disk of Monteverdi with
I Fagiolini. |
