Messiah – Saturday 9th December 2023

Winner of both First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2006 London Handel Singing Competition, Nathan Vale studied with Ryland Davies at the Royal College of Music and the Benjamin Britten International Opera School.

Nathan’s major oratorio performances in the UK have included the Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the London Handel Players, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Bach Choir, the Monteverdi Vespers and Haydn’s Creation with Canterbury Choral Society. International performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion have been with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, and Camerata Copenhagen. He has also performed Handel’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day with both the Israeli Camerata and the Riga Chamber Choir.

Nathan has performed a range of operatic roles with international companies: the Bolshoi Opera, Luxembourg Opera, Opera Baugé, ENO, English Touring Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, and Teatro Massimo Palermo. This season he returns to Snape Maltings to perform in the newly commissioned opera To See the Invisible by Emily Howard.

A committed recitalist, Nathan has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, the Three Choirs Festival, the Hong Kong Festival, and the ROH. He has also recorded with SOMM Records, which the Telegraph described as: “One of the glories of classical music today”. This new company is committed to discovering fresh repertoire performed by artists of talent and scholarship. Nathan’s recording of Love’s Voice (Songs by Finzi, Gurney, Ireland, & Venables) is described as “A hugely enjoyable CD of great musical charm.”

Described as ‘sensational‘ by Gramophone Magazine in her recording of Nunes Garcia’s ‘Laudamus te‘ from his Missa Pastoril, Katie has also received great critical acclaim for her performances of Bach’s Matthew Passion with Ex Cathedra at Birmingham Symphony Hall and Orff’s Carmina Burana for Birmingham Royal Ballet at Birmingham Hippodrome.

‘The singing, especially when soprano Katie Trethewey was accompanied by solo theorbo, was utterly melting. The highlight of the entire work is a prolonged plaint [sung by Trethewey] which positively aches.’ Church Times

She is increasingly in demand on the continent, recently performing William Boyce’s Solomon with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Händel-Festspiele in Halle, Germany, where she has also performed solos in Handel’s Messiah with Tenebrae and the Academy of Ancient Music.

An impressive discography comprises numerous recordings with celebrated vocal ensembles, including Ensemble Plus Ultra, Ex Cathedra, Dunedin Consort, The Cardinall’s Musick, Tenebrae, The Gabrieli Consort and The Tallis Scholars. Katie is a featured soloist on Ensemble Plus Ultra’s Grammy-award-winning discs of Victoria’s sacred works, and on A Tender Light, Tenebrae’s critically-acclaimed CD of works by Paul Mealor.

Blessed with “A voice full of character, warmth and intensity,” (The Independent),  Stephen Gadd is one of the leading baritones of his generation.

His international career has taken him throughout the UK as well as to Europe and North America, appearing with The Royal Opera, London, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Grange Park Opera, Opera Holland Park, Opera North and Scottish Opera, as well as at the Salzburg Festival, Dutch National Opera, Angers Nantes Opera, Opera de Montpellier, Opera de Rouen, Finnish National Opera, and at the Dallas Opera.

His concert engagements have included performances with Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,  City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.

His extensive discography includes Beethoven’s Der glorreiche Augenblick and Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols (Naxos CD) Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Tudor CD) and Symphony No. 8 (LPO CD) and Weber’s Euryanthe (PRCD – nominated for an International Classical Music Award). Most recently released is Richard Blackford’s Vision of a Garden with The Bach Choir conducted by David Hill (Lyrita CD).

Cathy Bell studied English and Medieval Literature at Cambridge and singing at Birmingham Conservatoire. She is a former CREAR Scholar and was a member of Handel House Talent 2014-15. Baroque music continues to be a specialism, with recent solo debuts at the Valletta International Baroque Festival as Venus (Pepusch Venus and Adonis), at the Barbican as Second Witch (Dido and Aeneas) with the Academy of Ancient Music, and at the Nordland Music Festival with Barokksolistene Norway.

Cathy particularly enjoys her work as a concert soloist. Highlights include Bach Mass in B minor with Cantemus; A. Scarlatti Salve regina at Wells Cathedral; Vivaldi Introduzione e Gloria for Montgomeryshire Music Festival; Handel Messiah at Cadogan Hall and Nottingham Royal Concert Hall; and Rachmaninov Vespers at St Magnus International Festival in Orkney.

Opera roles include Carmen for Barefoot Opera; Russian Nanny (Death in Venice) for Garsington; Third Lady/Third Boy (Die Zauberflöte) for Diva Opera and the Palestine Mozart Festival. Chorus contracts include Scottish Opera, Garsington, Grange Park, Bergen Nasjonale Opera and the festivals in Aix-en-Provence and Beijing.
Cathy works regularly with groups including the BBC Singers, Sonoro, Polyphony and EXAUDI. She lives in London with her husband Jon Stainsby, also a singer, and their two small daughters.

‘Bell took the chance to show off her beautiful, warm low notes right from the start, as well as making the most of the snappy passages of coloratura’  or ‘My kind of mezzo: on the deeper side, with sumptuous dark velvet on the low notes and plenty of colour’ (both from The Idle Woman, review of a recital at the Handel House)

‘…a rich, full sound […] which was thrilling to hear as a solo instrument’ (Early Music Today)