Deborah York

Born: England

The English soprano, Deborah York, graduated from Manchester University with a First Class Honors Degree in music and went on to study at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, with Laura Sarti. She now studies with Janice Chapman.

Deborah York performs and broadcasts regularly with many of Europe's leading groups and orchestras. Her concert performances have included a recital with The King's Consort at the Tonhalle, Zürich; a recital at Wigmore Hall with Michael Chance and Julius Drake, a recital of songs by Igor Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Francis Poulenc with Julius Drake at the 1998 Saintes Festival, Un Viaggio a Roma with Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini, J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243), Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248) and St. John Passion (BWV 245) with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe, Bach’s St Markus Passion (BWV 247) with Ton Koopman, Messiah with Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert; Purcell's Fairy Queen with Marcus Creed and Freiburger Barockorchester, and Antonio Vivaldi's Laudate Pueri with La Stagione Frankfurt.

Deborah York's operatic roles have included Anne Truelove in I. Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in the celebrated Cox/Hockney Glyndebourne production for New Israeli Opera; Mirror in Harrison Birtwistle's The Second Mrs Kong for Glyndebourne and Glyndebourne Touring Opera; Emilia in Georg Frideric Handel's Flavio for Opera Theatre Company, Dublin and Covent Garden Festival; Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito for Glyndebourne Touring Opera; Barbarina (Figaro) and Giannetta (L'Elisir d'Amore) at Covent Garden, Ismene in Georg Philipp Telemann's Orfeus and Iris in G.F. Handel's Semele, both with René Jacobs at the Berlin Staatsoper, and Euridice in Monteverdi's Orfeo at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.

Deborah York has established a reputation as one of the finest baroque singers and performs regularly with many of Europe’s leading baroque ensembles. She recently sang Bellezza in G.F. Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, as well as solo cantatas by Bach and Scarlatti with Freiburger Barockorchester and with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

Also much in demand in classical repertoire, Deborah York sang Mozart’s Requiem with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra last season and Haydn’s Harmoniemesse and Felix Mendelssohn’s concert aria Infelice with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Hengelbrock. In 2004/05, she sings Mozart’s C minor Mass with the Orquesta Nacional de Madrid under Lorenzo Ramos, J.S. Bach’s b minor Mass (BWV 232) with the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, and Mozart’s Davidde Penitente with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Ton Koopman.

Deborah York has performed at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Sydney Opera House and Tel Aviv Opera in operas by Monteverdi, Mozart, Gluck, Benjamin Britten, G.F. Handel, I. Stravinsky and Donizetti. She sang Almirena in G.F. Handel’s Rinaldo opposite David Daniels, recorded live for DVD from the Bayerische Staatsoper, and last season (2004) created the role of ‘Lucia’ in Deborah Warner's new production in Munich of B. Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, to the highest critical acclaim.

Opera appearances this year include Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Berliner Staatsoper, in Luxembourg and in Montpellier, Anne Truelove in I. Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Semperoper in Dresden and Amour in Gluck’s Orphee and Oberto in G.F. Handel's Alcina at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Deborah will return to Munich in 2005-2006 to create the role of Dorinda in Munich for David Alden’s new production of Orlando.

In 2003 Deborah York gave a recital at the Moscow Easter Festival with pianist Mark Lawson, performing works by J.S. Bach, I. Stravinsky, Purcell and Percy Grainger, and held a master-class at the Moscow Conservatoire.

Last year (2004), she formed the 'amritaensemble' with a group of fellow musicians to explore more fully the Baroque solo cantata repertoire for soprano in an intimate chamber music setting. Their performance of the Bach cantatas Non sa che sia dolore (BWV 209) and Ich habe genug (BWV 82) were broadcast for Dutch radio live from the Amsterdam Bach Festival 2004.

Her extensive discography includes cantatas by J.S. Bach with Philippe Herreweghe for Harmonia Mundi and with Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. With the Gabrieli Consort she has recorded the one-to-a-part Matthew Passion (BWV 244), for Deutsche Grammophon, and in 2000 she received a Grammy for I. Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (Anne Truelove), also recorded for DG, with the London Symphony Orchestra and John Eliot Gardiner. Her latest recording is J.S. Bach’s Lutheran Mass BWV 236 with Ton Koopman and Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.