Lucy Crowe
Described as having a voice of bell-like clarity with an impeccable vocal technique and powerful stage presence, Lucy Crowe has established herself as one of the leading lyric sopranos of her generation.

With repertoire ranging from Purcell, Handel and Mozart to Donizetti’s Adina and Verdi’s Gilda she has sung with opera companies throughout the UK and Europe, including the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival, English National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Bavarian State Opera. She made her US operatic debut as Iole (Handel’s Hercules) for Chicago Lyric Opera, reprising the role for the Canadian Opera Company, and she made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera, New York as Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), returning last season for Adele (Die Fledermaus).

On the concert platform she is much in demand with the world’s major orchestras and conductors and she has appeared at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Salzburg and Tanglewood Festivals and at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. She is a regular guest at London’s Wigmore Hall and other recital appearances include New York’s Carnegie Hall. She makes her Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw recital debut this season.

Lucy’s 2016/17 operatic plans include the title role in Rodelinda at the Teatro Real Madrid and Ismene (Mitridate) at the Royal Opera House. In concert she will appear with the Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin, on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra/John Eliot Gardiner, the Czech Philharmonic/Jiří Bělohlávek, the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Nelsons, and the Accademia Santa Cecilia Orchestra/Pappano.

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

Highlights of the 2016/17 season include a return to Opera Vlaanderen as Ottone in Handel Agrippina, and a reprisal of the role of Boy/Angel in George Benjamin’s hugely successful Written on Skin at the Bolshoi. In concert, Mead will sing Athamas in Handel Semele with the CBSO and the Handel and Haydn Society, Didymus in Handel Theodora with the Akademie fur Alte Musik, Bach programmes with the Dunedin Consort, Endimione in Cavalli La Calisto with La Nuova Musica at Wigmore Hall, and will headline a concert tour of Asia with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, as part of the Shakespeare 400 celebrations. He will also appear at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees singing Monteverdi and Pergolesi for Les Grandes Voix, and will give a recital at Wigmore Hall accompanied by James Baillieu. Next season brings Mead’s debut at the Opéra National de Paris, and a return to the Bayerische Staatsoper and English National Opera.

Recent operatic highlights include Oberon in Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and at Bergen National Opera, the title role in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten at Opera Vlaanderen, the leading role in Theater Basel’s new ‘Melancholia’ programme both in Basel and at the Holland Festival, and the title role Riccardo Primo at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Arsamene in Cavalli Xerse with Le Concert d’Astrée at Opéra de Lille, Theater an der Wien, and Theatre de Caen. Previous highlights include Goffredo and Eustazio Rinaldo at Glyndebourne, Endimione La Calisto at Bayerische Staatsoper, Voice of Apollo in Deborah Warner’s production of Death in Venice at English National Opera and De Nederlandse Opera, Angel 1/Boy in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse and at the Gulbenkian Lisbon and Tolomeo Julius Caesar at English National Opera. Other operatic highlights include Ottone L’incoronazione di Poppea at ENO, Opéra de Lyon, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Dijon and Den Norske Opera, title role Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne, title role Orlando at Scottish Opera and Chicago Opera Theater, Clearte Niobe and the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s The Minotaur for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, title role Admeto at International Händel Festspiele Göttingen and the Edinburgh International Festival, Ottone Agrippina in Lille and Dijon, Tolomeo Giulio Cesare at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Paggio Ercole Amante at De Nederlandse Opera and in concert the title role in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Akademie für Alte Musik, Andronico Tamerlano with Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, Rinaldo with Bach Collegium Japan and Bertarido Rodelinda with Mercury Baroque.

On the concert platform Tim Mead has sung Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Le Concert d’Astree, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Accademia Bizantina and Concerto Köln, Bach Christmas Oratorio with Les Arts Florissants, Bach Magnificat with Le Concert d’Astree, Bach St Matthew Passion with London Handel Festival and De Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Bach B Minor Mass with Arcangelo, Handel Theodora with the English Concert, Handel Solomon with Akademie für Alte Musik, Handel Judas Maccabaeus with the OAE, Handel Saul with the Dresdner Barockorchester, Handel Joseph and his Brethren at the International Händel Festspiele Göttingen, Handel Susanna with the Early Opera Company, Handel Esther with the Dunedin Consort and Dusapin La Melancholia with the SWR Sinfonieorchester. He has worked with such leading conductors as Ivor Bolton, John Butt, William Christie, Harry Christophers, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Alan Curtis, Ottavio Dantone, Jane Glover, Paul Goodwin, Emmanuelle Haïm, Vladimir Jurowski, Raymond Leppard, Paul McCreesh, Nicholas McGegan, Marc Minkowski and Masaaki Suzuki.

Mead’s already substantial discography includes Bach St Matthew Passion and B Minor Mass, the Handel oratorios Messiah, Saul, Solomon, Israel in Egypt, and The Triumph of Time and Truth, the Handel operas Admeto, Flavio, Riccardo Primo and Rinaldo, and Monteverdi L’incoronazione di Poppea. He has recorded for EMI Classics, Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Opus Arte, Chandos, Linn Records amongst others.

Mead read Music as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, before winning a number of scholarships to continue his vocal studies at the Royal College of Music.