Ian Bostridge

Ian Bostridge’s extraordinary international career has taken him to the foremost concert halls, orchestras and opera houses in the world. Synonymous with the works of Schubert and Britten, his recital career has taken him to the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Aldeburgh and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade Festivals and to the main stages of Carnegie Hall, the Bayerische Staatsoper, La Monnaie and Teatro alla Scala. In opera, Ian has received particular praise for his interpretation of Aschenbach Death in Venice at the Deutsche Oper & Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw for Teatro alla Scala. His recordings have won all the major international record prizes and been nominated for 15 Grammys.

Ian has held artistic residencies at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, the Barbican, the Luxembourg Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall and Hamburg Laeiszhalle. Ian has also participated in a Carte-Blanche series with Thomas Quasthoff at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and a Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall and the inaugural Artistic Residency with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Ian has worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago, Boston, London and BBC Symphony orchestras, the London, New York, Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, the Rotterdam Philharmonisch Orkest, Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and Donald Runnicles.  

His many recordings have won all the major international record prizes and been nominated for 15 Grammys. His recording for Pentatone of Schubert’s Winterreise with Thomas Adès won the Vocal Recording of the Year 2020 in the International Classical Music Awards. Recent recordings include Respighi Songs and Die schöne Mullerin with Saskia Giorgini for Pentatone, Tormento d’Amore, Shakespeare songs (Grammy Award, 2017) and Requiem: The Pity of War with Pappano for Warner Classics, as well as Berlioz’s Les Nuits d'Eté, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Debussy’s Le Livre de Baudelaire arr. John Adams with Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. The 22/23 season season saw the release Ian’s latest two albums through Pentatone: The Folly of Desire with Brad Mehldau and Schwanengesang with Lars Vogt.

His book Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession (The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, 2016) was published by Faber and Faber in the UK and Knopf in the USA in 2014. In the 20/21 season Ian gave a lecture series for the University of Chicago and took up the position of Visiting Professor at the Munich Hochschule für Musik und Theater. Ian’s most recent book, Song and Self, was published by Faber and Faber in 2023. Ian was a fellow in history at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1992-5) and in 2001 was elected an honorary fellow of the college. In 2003 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the University of St Andrews and in 2010 he was made an honorary fellow of St John's College Oxford. He was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honours.  In 2014 he was Humanites Professor of Classical Music at the University of Oxford. 

Julius Drake

The pianist Julius Drake lives in London and enjoys an international reputation as one of the finest instrumentalists in his field, collaborating with many of the world's leading artists, both in recital and on disc. His passionate interest in song has led to invitations to devise song series for Wigmore Hall, London; The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; 92nd Street Y, New York; and the Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin. He curates an annual series of song recitals - Julius Drake and Friends - in the historic Middle Temple Hall in London. Julius Drake is Professor of Collaborative Piano at the Guildhall School of Music in London and he is regularly invited to give masterclasses worldwide.

Julius Drake's many recordings include a widely acclaimed series with Gerald Finley for Hyperion Records of which 'Songs by Samuel Barber', 'Schumann: Dichterliebe & other Heine Settings' and 'Britten: Songs & Proverbs of William Blake' won the 2007. 2009 and 2011 Gramophone Awards; recordings with Ian Bostridge and Alice Coote for EMI; with Joyce DiDonato, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Matthew Polenzani for Wigmore Live; and with Anna Prohaska for Alpha. Julius Drake's recording of Janáček's 'The Diary of One Who Disappeard', with tenor Nicky Spence and mezzo-soprano Václava Housková for Hyperion Records, won both the Gramophone and the BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2020.

Concerts this season include recitals at La Scala, Milan and the Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid with Ludovic Tézier; return visits to the Boulez Saal Berlin for the series ' Lied und Lyrik'; a recital tour in the USA with Ian Bostridge; the complete Mahler songs in five recitals in the Mahler Festival at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; recitals at the Opera Liceu in Barcelona with Gerald Finley, Sarah Connolly and Irene Theorin; return visits to the Chamber Music Festivals of Sante Fe, West Cork and Oxford; concerts in Berlin and at the Aldeburgh Festival with André Schuen; piano duet recitals with Elisabeth Leonskaja in Austria, including at the Schubertiade Festival; recitals in the USA and Europe with Fleur Barron, Mercedes Gancedo, Christopher Prégardien, Julia Kleiter Anna Prohaska and Roderick Williams; and at Wigmore Hall, London the Season Opening concert celebrating the Fauré Anniversary as well as recitals with Alice Coote, Stuart Jackson, Sofia Fomina and Brindley Sherratt.