Tom Sutcliffe (opera critic)
| Tom Sutcliffe | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 4, 1943 Norwich, England |
| Occupation | Journalist, critic, author |
Tom Sutcliffe (born 4 June 1943) is an English opera critic, author and journalist. He is also a current member of the General Synod of the Church of England, first elected for the Diocese of Southwark in 1990. From 2002 until 2011 he was a member of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England.
Sutcliffe was born in Norwich, and saw his first opera, at the age of 4, at the Kings Theatre, Southsea. He was a boy chorister at Chichester Cathedral, and became head chorister there in 1955, near the end of the period during which Horace Hawkins was Organist and Master of the Choristers. He was educated with a choral scholarship at Hurstpierpoint College and then at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a tenor choral scholar and studied English literature.
His professional career as a countertenor commenced in 1964, while he taught English at what is now the Purcell School. He sang for Henry Washington at Brompton Oratory, and took singing lessons privately from Roy Hickman, a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, whose students included the tenor Ian Partridge, the contralto Ruth Little, and the countertenor Kevin Smith. From 1965 to 1969, he played an important role in the management of the pioneering early music group Musica Reservata, founded by Michael Morrow and John S. Beckett. He was responsible for the first ever large-scale concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall involving an orchestra of authentic instruments in July 1967, as a result of which Musica Reservata was contracted to make a number of recordings with Philips Records. Between 1966 and 1970, he was the one countertenor in the choir of Westminster Cathedral (where the boy choristers also provide an alto line). He was a founder member alongside Paul Esswood, James Griffett and James Bowman of the men's voice vocal ensemble Pro Cantione Antiqua, making a series of recordings in 1970 for German radio stations conducted by Bruno Turner. Also in 1970 he made his professional opera debut at the Landestheater Darmstadt as Ottone in L'incoronazione di Poppea in a production by the Harro Dicks, conducted by Hans Drewanz using a new edition by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In 1969 and 1970, he sang with the Concentus Musicus Wien, first as alto soloist in the Christmas Oratorio in Bremen, and then at the Vienna Festival in a Konzerthaus performance of two Bach alto cantatas. He also recorded the Machault Messe de Nostre Dame with James Bowman, and was a soloist in the first period instrument recording of the St Matthew Passion, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
...
Wikipedia