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 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).

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.