Ian Bostridge

About Ian Bostridge

One of the country’s most strikingly individual tenors, Ian Bostridge combines his remarkable palette of vocal colour with a sharp and restless intelligence. His performances are often provocatively unconventional, but at their best—notably in songs by Schubert, Wolf and Britten—are revelatory and compelling due to his detailed response to the sung texts. Born in London in 1964, Bostridge studied history, receiving his doctorate from Oxford in 1990. He taught history and political theory there before pursuing a career as a singer, making his Wigmore Hall debut in 1993, followed by his Aldeburgh Festival debut a year later. While his repertoire includes Bach, Handel and a good deal of French song, Bostridge is particularly associated with music by the Aldeburgh Festival’s founder, Benjamin Britten, and, more broadly, with repertoire associated with Britten’s lifelong partner and colleague, the tenor Peter Pears. While Bostridge’s willowy physique precludes his undertaking physically imposing roles such as Peter Grimes, he has successfully taken on many of Pears’ other operatic roles and repertoire. He also has the advantage over Pears that his voice has a wider compass, and, since the turn of the century, has gained in lyrical richness.

HOMETOWN
London, England
BORN
25 December 1964
GENRE
Classical

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