Le Stabat Mater de Pergolesi

Jonathan Cohen has forged a remarkable career as a conductor, cellist and keyboardist. Well known for his passion and commitment to chamber music Jonathan is equally at home in such diverse activities as baroque opera and the classical symphonic repertoire. He is Artistic Director of Arcangelo, Music Director of Les Violons du Roy, Artistic Director of Tetbury Festival and Artistic Partner of St Paul Chamber Orchestra. From the 2023-2024 season, he will be the Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society.

The 22-23 season sees Jonathan returning to the USA to conduct the Handel and Haydn Society and St Paul Chamber Orchestra and his projects with Les Violons du Roy include Handel’s Alcina and programmes with Carolyn Sampson and Philippe Jaroussky. He conducts Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, as well as projects with Arcangelo including Handel’s Theodora.

Jonathan founded Arcangelo in 2010, who strive to perform high quality and specially created projects. He has toured with them to exceptional halls and festivals including Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Salzburg Festival and Carnegie Hall New York. They made their Proms debut at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2016 and returned to the Proms in 2018 (Theodora) and 2021 (St Matthew Passion).

Arcangelo is busy and much in demand in the recording studio, partnering with fine soloists such as Iestyn Davies (its disc Arias for Guadagni won the Recital Category at the 2012 Gramophone Awards and its recording of Bach cantatas was best Baroque Vocal recording at the 2017 Gramophone Awards), Anna Prohaska, and Christopher Purves for Hyperion Records. Its recording CPE Bach Cello Concertos with Nicolas Altstaedt won the BBC Music Magazine Awards Concerto category in 2017, and its Buxtehude Trio Sonatas, Op.1 recording for Alpha Classics was nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Arcangelo’s recent recordings include Handel’s Brockes-Passion, Buxtehude Trio Sonatas Op. 2 and a further disc of Bach Cantatas with Iestyn Davies.

Equally at home on the concert and opera stages, Carolyn Sampson has enjoyed notable successes in the UK as well as throughout Europe and the US.

On the opera stage her roles have included the title role in Semele and Pamina in The Magic Flute for English National Opera, various roles in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne Festival Opera (released on DVD) and both Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress and Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande in Sir David McVicar’s productions for Scottish Opera. Internationally she has appeared at Opéra de Paris, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montpellier and Opéra National du Rhin. She also sang the title role in Lully’s Psyché for the Boston Early Music Festival, which was released on CD and was subsequently nominated for a Grammy in 2008.

Carolyn’s numerous concert engagements in the UK have included regular appearances at the BBC Proms, and with orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English Concert, Hallé, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Sixteen, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In the US Carolyn has featured as soloist with the Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minnesota Orchestra and San Francisco Symphonies, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, and is a regular guest at the Mostly Mozart Festival.

Alongside her longstanding relationship with the BIS label she has released multi award-winning discs for Decca, Harmonia Mundi, and Hyperion, receiving accolades including the Choc de l'Année Classica, Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice, BBC Music Magazine’s Record of the Month, an ECHO Award, and a Diapason D’Or. Her recording with Ex Cathedra for Hyperion, A French Baroque Diva won the recital award in the 2015 Gramophone Awards. Carolyn was also nominated for Artist of the Year in the 2017 Gramophone Awards, and her recording of Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Exsultate Jubilate with Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan won the Choral Award. Their subsequent recording together of Bach St Matthew Passion also won the Choral Award in the 2020 Gramophone Awards.

Counter-tenor Tim Mead is praised for his “alluring” and “consistently excellent” interpretations (New York Times). With his “rich, mellifluous sound” (Guardian), he is recognized as one of the finest across the generations of counter-tenors.

Recent operatic highlights include Goffredo in Rinaldo at Glyndebourne; Endimione in La Calisto for Teatro Real, Madrid, and at the Bayerische Staatsoper; Bertarido in Rodelinda for Opéra de Lille; Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Opera Philadelphia, Glyndebourne, and Bergen National Opera; Hamor in Jephtha at the Opéra National de Paris; the title role in Akhnaten and Ottone in Agrippina for Opera Vlaanderen; the Boy/Angel in Written on Skin at the Bolshoi; Bertarido in Rodelinda at the English National Opera; and Arsamene in Cavalli’s Xerse with Le Concert d’Astrée at Opéra de Lille, Theater an der Wien, and Théâtre de Caen.

On the concert platform, recent highlights include Handel’s Jephtha with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the BBC Proms; a European recital tour with Le Concert d’Astrée; Bach’s St. John Passion with Jonathan Cohen and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; an appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall; a tour of Asia with The English Concert; Athamas in Semele with the CBSO and the Handel and Haydn Society; Didymus in Theodora with Akademie für Alte Musik; the world premiere of Theo Loevendie in Spinoza at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; Handel’s Messiah with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the New York Philharmonic, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE), Gabrieli Consort, the Handel & Haydn Society, the Academy of Ancient Music, and Le Concert d’Astree; the Bach B Minor Mass with The English Concert and Les Arts Florissants; Bach’s Magnificat with Le Concert d’Astrée; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the London Handel Festival and with the Netherlands Bach Society; Handel’s Theodora with the English Concert; Handel’s Solomon with Akademie für Alte Musik; Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with the OAE; and Handel’s Joseph and his Brethren at the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen.