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The English baritone and accountant, Michael John Craddock, studied at Hampton School (2002-2009). He started his musical education with the Trinity College Choir of Cambridge (Director: Stephen Layton), whom he sung with for four years (Octobere 2009-August 2013) as Choral Scholar at Trinity College Cambridge. Whilst studying Mathematics at University of Cambridge Homerton College (2009-2012), he found himself in many university productions, including Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona (Uberto), Milhaud's Le Pauvre Matelot L’Ami and Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti (Sam), and was invited back in 2014 to the university to sing the title role in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni.
Michael Craddock is a London-based freelance singer. His student days now behind him, he appears regularly as a soloist, and with choirs such as Polyphony (Director: Stephen Layton) and the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, and is currently learning with Gary Coward. In 2013 he undertook a tour of cathedrals with the City of London Sinfonia singing the baritone solos in the Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, broadcast live on Radio 3. He is a founder member of the Gesualdo Six, an all male vocal consort who are St. John’s Smith Square young artists 2015-2016. In addition to performing with the Gesualdo Six, he is a founder member of the consort group Amici Voices, with whom he regularly performs the works of J.S. Bach one-to-a-part. Amici Voices have also recently recorded a disc commemorating the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, on which he is one of the four singers featured, and the group will this spring give a concert of J.S. Bach’s motets in Poprad, Slovakia.
Recent operatic performances include William Walton's The Bear (Smirnov) for Opera Minima and Opera Anywhere, Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bottom) in Aldeburgh, sharing the role with Matthew Rose, Donizetti's Don Pasquale (Dr. Malatesta) for Opera Minima, Rossini's La Cenerentola (Dandini) for the Bedford Park Fesitval, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Yamidori) for Opera A La Carte and Verdi’s La Traviata (Marchese) for Regent’s Opera at the Bermuda Festival. He will be singing the dual roles of Alfio/Tonio in Hampstead Garden Opera’s Spring 2016 performances of Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci.
Michael Craddock is a regular with the choir of the London Oratory, and in between his vocal engagements he works for a very accommodating barristers chambers as an accountant (Accounts Administrator at 20 Essex Street Chambers in London since August 2013). In his spare time he enjoys moving pictures, hopped beverages and cricket, a venn diagram of interests which intersects perfectly with his colleagues in The Gesualdo Six. He currently lives in Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, England. |
