Soloists

Matthew Brook

Matthew Brook has appeared as a soloist throughout Europe, Australia, North and South America and the Far East. He has worked with many of the world’s greatest conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Richard Hickox, Sir Charles Mackerras, Harry Christophers, Christophe Rousset and Sir Mark Elder, and orchestras and ensembles including the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the English Baroque Soloists, the City of London Sinfonia, Collegium Vocale Gent, the Gabrieli Consort, Les Talens Lyriques, the Sixteen, and Orchestra Nationale de Lille. He has performed at festivals such as Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Utrecht, the BBC Proms, Ambronay, La Chaise Dieu, Innsbruck, Bermuda, and the Three Choirs Festival.

Matthew’s operatic roles include Polyphemus Acis and Galatea, Aeneas Dido and Aeneas, Papageno The Magic Flute, Figaro The Marriage of Figaro, Leporello Don Giovanni, Ned Keene Peter Grimes, Vicar Albert Herring, Noye Noye’s Fludde, John Bunyan and Lord Hategood in Vaughan Williams’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, Melchior in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Young Sam in the British premiere of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, Jupiter in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux in Paris with Gardiner,Starek and Mayor Jenufa, Antenor and Calkas in Walton’sTroilus and Cressida with the Philharmonia and Hickox for the BBC, Zuniga in Carmen at the Opera Comique in Paris with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Argenio Imeneoat the Göttingen International Handel Festival, and Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He took part in a European tour with the English Baroque Soloists and Gardiner singing the roles of Don Alfonso and Bartolo in venues including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Salle Pleyel, Paris, Teatro Real, Madrid and Giuseppe Verdi Opera House, Pisa.

Matthew’s recordings include Counsel Trial By Jury and Friar Tuck in Sullivan’s Ivanhoe with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for Chandos records; a Gramophone Award-winning recording of Handel’s Dublin score of Messiah, Acis and Galatea and Bach’s St Matthew Passion and B Minor Mass, and most recently, Handel’s Esther, all with the Dunedin Consort for Linn Records; and Il Re di Scozia in Handel’s Ariodante with Il Complesso Barocco and Alan Curtis for EMI/Virgin.

On the concert platform notable performances include Brahms’ Requiem with the St Petersburg Philharmonic; Bach’s B Minor Mass and Haydn’s Harmoniemesse with the Dresden Staatskapelle; Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Richard Hickox; Nielsen’s Symphony no. 3 with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder; Bach’s Mass in B minor and St Matthew Passion with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe; Bach’s St John Passion with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Oleg Caetani; Bach Cantatas with Marcus Creed and the Tonhalle-Orchester, Zurich; Elijah at the Three Choirs Festival with the Philharmonia Orchestra; Handel’s Apollo e Dafne with Retrospect Ensemble and Matthew Halls at the Wigmore Hall; Bach’s Magnificat and Haydn’s Creation with L’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris; Haydn’s The Seasons with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir; Messiah in Boston with Harry Christophers and the Handel and Haydn Society, and with the Sixteen; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Australian Chamber Orchestra; Kouno in Der Freischütz at the Opéra Comique and at the BBC Proms; Joseph in Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ for the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris; Zuniga in Carmen at Le Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg; Garibaldo Rodelinda with Il Complesso Barocco; and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg.

Recent and future highlights include Haydn’s Creation with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and with the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s Magnificat and Brahms’ Triumphlied with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Il Re di Scozia Ariodante with the Staatstheater Stuttgart and on tour with the English Concert, Bach’s B minor Mass at the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut, Fauré’s Requiem with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, a tour of Bach cantatas with the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, a tour of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the roles of Herod and Father in Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis.