Alcina de Handel : l'enchantement

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 the new Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society, in addition to continuing as Artistic Director of Arcangelo, Music Director of Les Violons du Roy and Artistic Director of Tetbury Festival.

Throughout the 23-24 season, Jonathan continues to have a strong presence on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe he guest conducts Budapest Festival Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liege and Hessischer Rundfunk Sinfonieorhcester. In his first season as their new Artistic Director, Jonathan leads the Handel & Haydn Society in Baroque masterpieces including Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Messiah. He conducts further performances of Messiah with San Francisco Symphony whilst projects with Les Violons du Roy include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and a US tour with Milos Karadaglic.

Jonathan founded Arcangelo in 2010 to create high quality bespoke projects. The ensemble was the first named Baroque Ensemble in Residence at Wigmore Hall, where it enjoys a continuing close association, and has toured to exceptional halls and festivals including Philharmonie Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, Barbican Centre, Kölner Philharmonie, Salzburg Festival, MA Festival Bruges, with three appearances at the BBC Proms including the premiere of Handel Theodora (2018) and a televised performance of Bach St Matthew Passion (2021).

Arcangelo’s founding commitment to the recording studio has produced 28 critically lauded albums including Arias for Guadagni and Bach Cantatas with Iestyn Davies (Hyperion; Gramophone Award 2012 and 2017), Mozart Violin Concertos with Vilde Frang (Warner; ECHO Klassik Award 2015) C.P.E. Bach Cello Concertos with Nicolas Altstaedt (Hyperion; BBC Music Magazine Award 2017), Buxtehude Trio Sonatas Op.1 (Alpha Classics; GRAMMY Nominee 2018), Tiranno with Kate Lindsey (Alpha; Sunday Times Records of the Year 2021). Arcangelo’s latest recordings include Sacroprofano with Tim Mead (Alpha; released 2023), Handel Theodora and Buxtehude Opus Posthumous (Alpha; releasing 2024), Handel Chandos Anthems (Alpha; releasing 2025) and a landmark project with Nicolas Altstaedt to make the first survey on period instruments of Boccherini’s Cello Concertos (Alpha).

Recognized for her work in the baroque repertoire, Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin also sings Mahler, Bach, Beethoven, Britten, and the music of the late 20th and 21st centuries with equal success. The prestigious distinctions she has received include the title of “Soloist of the Year” awarded by the Communauté internationale des radios publiques de langue française, first prize in the CBC Radio competition for young performers, and the Virginia Parker Prize and Maggie Teyte Memorial Prize in London. . Her 2021-21 season includes dates with the Orchestre Metropolitain, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, and a recital for the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club of Montreal.

Ms. Gauvin has sung with the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, including the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic and Rotterdam Philharmonic, as well as baroque orchestras such as Les Talens Lyriques, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Accademia Bizantina, Il Complesso Barocco, the Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roy. She has performed under the direction of maestros Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Bernard Labadie, Kent Nagano, Sir Roger Norrington, Helmuth Rilling, Christophe Rousset, and Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition, she has sung in recital with pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Michael McMahon, and Roger Vignoles.

Notable opera successes include Vitellia in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; Vénus in Rameau’s Dardanus with Opéra National de Bordeaux; L’Eternità/Giunone in La Calisto with the Bayerische Staatsoper; the title role in Armide with De Nederlandse Opera; Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo at the Glyndbourne Festival; the title role of Handel’s Alcina with Les Talens Lyriques; and Ariadne in Georg Conradi’s Die Schöne und getreue Ariadne for the Boston Early Music Festival. She performed in Vivaldi’s Tito Manlio in Brussels and at the Barbican in London; Fulvio in Handel’s Ezio in Paris and Vienna; the title role in Giulio Cesare in Paris and Vienna; and the title role in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans with Andrea Marcon at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She has also sung Seleuce in Handel’s Tolomeo with Alan Curtis, with whom she recorded Handel operas on ARCHIV/Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin and Naïve labels, among others. Her recorded performances with the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra have earned her two nominations from the Grammy Awards.

On the concert stage, memorable performances include the Princess in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges with the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Bach’s St. John Passion and Handel’s Solomon with Les Violons du Roy; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Debussy’s The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

Karina Gauvin has an extensive discography – over 30 titles – and she has won numerous awards, including a Chamber Music America Award for Fête Galante, with pianist Marc-André Hamelin, and several Opus Prizes. Other recording projects include a European tour and a recording of Handel’s Ariodante for EMI Virgin Classics; a European tour and a recording of Giulio Cesare for the Naïve House, both with Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco; and Britten’s Les Illuminations with Les Violons du Roy, under the direction of Jean-Marie Zeitouni. In addition, she has completed an album in honor of Anna Maria Strada del Po, with Alexander Weimann and the Arion Ensemble.

With repertoire ranging from Purcell, Handel and Mozart to Donizetti’s Adina (L'elisir d'amore), Verdi’s Gilda (Rigoletto) and Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, she has sung with opera companies throughout the world, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival, English National Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera, Munich, and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Recent opera highlights include her debut at Dutch National Opera in the title role Rodelinda and a return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for Poppea Agrippina. Highlights this season include Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the Metropolitan Opera and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) at Liceu Barcelona.

In concert, she has performed with many of the world’s finest conductors and orchestras including City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Monteverdi Orchestra/Gardiner, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the London Symphony Orchestra. Highlights in concert this season include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Bayerischer Rundfunk, US and European tours of Handel’s Alcina and Serse, both with The English Concert, Macmillan’s Christmas Oratorio with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with the Staatskapelle Berlin

A committed recitalist she has appeared at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Mostly Mozart and Salzburg Festivals, and is a regular guest at the BBC Proms and Wigmore Hall.

Her recordings include Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the LSO; Handel’s Il Pastor Fido and Handel & Vivaldi with La Nuova Musica for Harmonia Mundi; Lutoslawski with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Alceste with the Early Opera Company and Eccles’ The Judgement of Paris all for Chandos; a solo Handel disc ll Caro Sassone and Handel’s Rodelinda with the English Concert, and Handel’s Queens with London Early Opera for Hyperion. Her debut recital recording featuring Berg, Strauss, and Schoenberg songs was released by Linn Records in August 2021.

Yorkshire born soprano Rowan Pierce was awarded the President’s Award by HRH Prince of Wales at the Royal College of Music in 2017. She won both the Song Prize and First Prize at the inaugural Grange Festival International Singing Competition in 2017, the first Schubert Society Singer Prize in 2014 and the Van Someren Godfery Prize at the RCM.

Rowan has appeared in concert throughout Europe and South America. She performs regularly with ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Rowan made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2017 with the OAE and returned in 2019 for Handel Jephtha with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She made her Wigmore Hall debut with the London Handel Players and returned with Florilegium in the 2019/20 season.

On the opera stage Rowan has performed Drusilla in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Miss Wordsworth in Britten’s Albert Herring and Princess in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. Her future and recent operatic roles include Galatea (Acis and Galatea), Iris (Semele), Dorinda (Orlando), Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), Elsie (Yeoman of the Guard), Papagena (The Magic Flute) and Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro). In 2019 she made her debut at the Buxton Festival in the role of Papiria (Lucio Papirio Dittatore by Caldara) with La Serenissima and performed the roles of Quivera and Orazia (The Indian Queen) with Opéra de Lille. Other recent and future engagements include various roles in performances of both Purcell’s King Arthur and The Fairy Queen with the Gabrieli Consort and also with Ensemble Alia Mens in France, more performances of the Indian Queen with Opéra de Luxembourg, Opéra de Caen and Antwerp Opera as well as concerts and a recital with Philharmonia Baroque. In 2022 she makes her Glyndebourne Festival debut singing Oberto (Alcina).

Praised for her “dulcet-toned mezzo-soprano” by the Wall Street Journal, Kayleigh Decker is fast becoming a name to watch in Europe and her native USA.

Kayleigh recently finished as an ensemble member of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago where roles included her debut as Second Cretan Woman/Idomeneo, Kate Pinkerton/ Madama Butterfly and a number of notable cover roles, including Le Prince Charmant/Cendrillon, Rosina/The Barber of Seville, Laura/Luisa Miller and Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni conducted by James Gaffigan. Future plans include her return to Glyndebourne Festival in Summer 2022 as Ruggiero/Alcina.

An alumna of University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory, Kayleigh’s roles at CCM Opera include Fox/The Cunning Little Vixen, Le Prince Charmant/Cendrillon, Idamante/Idomeneo and the title role of Ariodante. Other opera highlights include the title role in La Cenerentola for Queen City Opera, Peggy in Jack Perla’s Shalimar the Clown for Cincinnati Opera, and Fox in Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince for Cincinnati Chamber Opera.

A passionate song interpreter, she was named one of Caramoor’s 2018 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars and was a participant in the inaugural season of Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall. She has given recitals produced by the Cincinnati Song Initiative, and recently performed a solo recital at Carnegie Hall and the Chicago Cultural Center.

In 2019, Kayleigh was the recipient of three prestigious scholarships: the Luminarts Fellowship, first place in the Musicians Club of Women Scholarship Competition, and a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. Further accolades include first place in the Three Arts Scholarship Fund Competition and The Macdowell Society Scholarship Award in Cincinnati, second place in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions-Great Lakes Region, first place in the CCM Corbett Competition, and the Encouragement award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions-Cincinnati District in 2016.

A native of Jupiter, Florida, Avery Amereau made her professional debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2016 as the Madrigal Singer in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, praised by the New York Times as “captivating…. [Amereau] stood out for the unusually rich, saturated auburn timbre of her voice.”

Recent operatic engagements have included Olga/Eugene Onegin for Santa Fe Opera, Bradamante/Alcina for Hannover Staatsoper, Eduige/Rodelinda at Opera de Lille and Opera de Lyon, Serena Joy/The Handmaid’s Tale for English National Opera, Dryad/Ariadne for Glyndebourne, Cherubino/Nozze di Figaro for Grand Théâtre de Genève, Ursula/Beatrice et Benedict for Seattle Opera as well as Page/Salome for the Salzburg Festival.

On the concert platform, Avery’s plans this season include her debut Marguerite/Damnation de Faust with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra cond. Federico Cortese, concert performances of Bradamante/Alcina cond. Jonathan Cohen in Quebec and Montreal and Bach Cantatas cond. Bernard Labadie with Les Violons du Roy, the Mozart Requiem in professional debuts for the Cleveland Orchestra cond. Franz Welser-Möst and for the Barcelona Symphony cond. Trevor Pinnock, the Messiah for the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston cond. Václav Luks and for St Paul Chamber Orchestra cond. Paul McCreesh, as well as a recording of Sorceress/Dido & Aeneas with La Nuova Musica for the Pentatone label.

Recent concerts include the world premiere of The Listeners by Caroline Shaw on a US concert tour & Christmas Oratorio cond. Richard Egarr, both with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Messiah with Bernard Labadie and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, her debut with the Early Opera Company in Dido and Aeneas at Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vivaldi arias with the Orchestra of St Luke’s in New York, Mozart Requiem with the Rhode Island Philharmonic under Bramwell Tovey, Bach’s St John Passion and Duruflé’s Requiem with the Voices of Ascension, New York, Berlioz Les Nuits D’été and Brahms Alto Rhapsody with the American Classical Orchestra under Thomas Crawford and concerts of Handel and Vivaldi with the Santa Fe Pro Musica.

Stuart Jackson won prizes at both the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition and at the International Hugo Wolf Lied Competition in Stuttgart and has since given recitals for Staatsoper Stuttgart, at Wigmore Hall, at the Oxford Lieder Festival and at the Albertina Musensaal in Vienna.

In 21/22 season, Stuart sings his first Evangelist Bach St Matthew Passion with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen at the BBC Proms; Haydn The Creation at the Barbican with the Academy of Ancient Music; Handel Samson with The English Concert at the London Handel Festival; Mozart Mitridate, re di Ponto at the Royal Danish Opera, and returned to Glyndebourne Festival for Handel Alcina.

Recent appearances have included Junger Seeman in a semi-staged performance of Tristan und Isolde for Glyndebourne Festival; Prologue and Quint The Turn of the Screw for Opéra National de Lorraine; Bach Christmas Oratorio with the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia with Trevor Pinnock, and his role and house debut as Jupiter Semele for Komische Oper, Berlin.

Stuart has sung Purcell The Fairy Queen with RIAS Kammerchor; Bach St John Passion on a European tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and with Chapelle Harmonique in Versailles, as well as on tour with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Daniel Reuss, with whom he has also performed St Matthew Passion; Mendelssohn Lobgesang with the Royal Northern Sinfonia; Martin Le Vin herbé with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra; Bruckner Te Deum with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra; and many performances of Messiah including with the Hallé Orchestra and John Butt, and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan. 

Past opera engagements include Narraboth (Salome) for his debut at English National Opera; Vašek (Bartered Brid) in his debut for Garsington Opera; Jonathan in Handel Saul for Glyndebourne Tour and High Priest/Abner/Amalekite/Doeg (Saul) for Glyndebourne Festival. Further afield he has repeated his roles in Handel Saul for the Adelaide Festival, sung Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) for Stuttgart Opera and Nettuno in Legrenzi La Divisione del Mondo for Opéra national du Rhin.

A “tall, majestic bass” with “impeccable technique” and “a palpable presence on stage,” Canadian bass-baritone Nathan Berg has enjoyed a career spannning a vast range of repertoire on the concert and operatic stage. He has recently earned worldwide acclaim for his portrayals of the title role in Der fliegende Holländer in his Bolshoi Theatre debut, Alberich in Das Rheingold with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Minnesota Opera, Doktor in Wozzeck with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony, for which he won a Grammy Award, and his company debut at Teatro alla Scala in Robert Carsen’s world-premiere production of Battistelli’s CO2.

In the 2021-2022 season, Mr. Berg makes his Metropolitan Opera stage debut as The Father in the New York premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, returns to Theater Basel as Philippe in Don Carlos, and debuts the role of Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde with the Taiwan Philharmonic. He will also lead a residency with Opera Lafayette in Taos, New Mexico, culminating in peformances of Grétry’s rarely-performed Silvain in both New York and Washington, DC.

As a Grammy, Juno, and Echo Award-winning recording artist, Mr. Berg has performed on over 30 recordings of works ranging from the 17^th to 20^th centuries with both period and modern orchestras. Early in his career, alongside building a solid reputation in major Mozart roles, Mr. Berg established his name as an outstanding interpreter of baroque and pre-classical music in both concert repertoire and opera. Notable among his many early recordings with Les Arts Florissants are Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah, as well as video recordings of Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes (Opéra de Paris) and Lully’s Armide (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées). Other noteworthy early recordings are Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Glyndebourne Festival production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and several lieder recordings. Recent releases include Wozzeck (Doktor) with the Houston Symphony, Dvořák’s Requiem with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony, and Les Indes Galantes with Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.