Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton
Biography Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton
Carolyn Sampson
has enjoyed notable successes worldwide in repertoire ranging from early baroque to the present day. On the opera stage she has appeared with English Na tional Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, Opéra de Paris, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montpellier and Opéra National du Rhin. In concert she performs regularly at the BBC Proms and with orchestras including the Bach Collegium Japan, Concert gebouw orkest, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra and with numerous orchestras in the USA. She has worked with conductors such as Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, William Christie, Harry Christophers, Sir Mark Elder, Philippe Herre weghe, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Trevor Pinnock. In recital, Carolyn Sampson is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall, and has performed at the Amsterdam Con cert gebouw, Carnegie Hall and in San Francisco, Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna, Barcelona and Freiburg, as well as a recital tour of Japan. An extensive disco graphy has earned her accolades including the recital award in the 2015 Gramophone Awards, a Diapason d’or and nomination for Artist of the Year in the 2017 Gramophone Awards. For BIS she has recorded a series of acclaimed recital discs with Joseph Middle ton, her regular partner, as well as Trennung, an 18th-century programme with Kristian Bezuidenhout at the forte piano.
Joseph Middleton
The highly acclaimed pianist Joseph Middleton specialises in the repertoire of chamber music and song. Alongside the world’s finest singers, he appears at major venues including Wigmore Hall, New York’s Lincoln Centre, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wiener Musik verein, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Musée d’Orsay, Oji Hall Tokyo and festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, BBC Proms, Edinburgh, San Francisco, Heidelberger Frühling, Schubertiade Hohenems and Schwarzen berg, Seoul and Vancouver.
He has enjoyed partnerships not only with Carolyn Sampson but also with such artists as Sir Thomas Allen, Ian Bostridge, Marianne Crebassa, Dame Sarah Connolly, Iestyn Davies, Angelika Kirchschlager, Dame Felicity Lott and Dorothea Röschmann. Joseph Middleton is director of Leeds Lieder, musician in residence and a bye-fellow at Pembroke College Cambridge and a fellow of and professor at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music. He has a fast-growing and award-winning discography and is heard frequently in his own series on BBC Radio 3. He was the recipient of the Royal Philhar monic Society’s Young Artist of the Year Award in 2017.
Roderick Williams
is one of the most sought-after baritones of his generation with a wide repertoire spanning baroque to contemporary music, which he performs in opera, concert and recital. He enjoys relationships with all the major UK opera houses and has sung opera world premières by David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michel van der Aa, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel as well as performing major roles including Papageno, Don Alfonso, Eugene Onegin and Billy Budd. He performs regularly with leading conductors and orchestras throughout the UK, Europe, North America and Australia, and his many festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Melbourne.
As a composer he has had works premièred at Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, the Purcell Room and on national radio. In December 2016 he won the prize for Best Choral Com position at the British Composer Awards. In the 2022/23 season he assumed the position of composer in association with the BBC Singers.
Roderick Williams was awarded an OBE in June 2017 and was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Opera in both the 2018 Olivier Awards for his performance in the title role of the Royal Opera House production of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and in 2019 for his role in ENO’s production of Britten’s War Requiem. He was artist in residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra from 2020 until 2023 and artist in residence at the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival.
