Christopher Foster (Bass-Baritone)

Born: England

The English bass-baritone, Christoher Foster, was educated at Newcastle University and the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies. He was a winner of the N.F.M.S. Young Concert Artists’ Award. He was a finalist in the Richard Tauber Competition at The Wigmore Hall and was also selected to take part in Thomas Allen’s inaugural singing course at The Samlings in the Lake District.

Christoher Foster's concert work has seen him perform throughout the UK and Europe with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Chapelle Royale, Vlaams Radio Orkest, Anima Eterna and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Andrew Davis, Marc Minkowski, Phillipe Herreweghe, Frieder Bernius and Joshua Rifkin. This includes concerts in Madrid of Messiah at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica, J.S. Bach's B minor Mass (BWV 232) at the Teatro Monumental (for Spanish Television), the Latvian premiere of Edward Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, two concerts in a Stravinsky Festival in Luxembourg and a performance of Messiah in the Concert Hall of the Forbidden City, Beijing.

Christopher Foster has appeared on radio broadcasts in France, Belgium and at home on BBC Radio 3. These have included J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) for the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts on two occasions, Bruch’s Schön Ellen and the world premiere of Donizetti’s cantata Christopher Columbus, Robert Schumann’s Manfred and Igor Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol (both at the Royal Festival Hall), the world premiere of Benjamin Britten’s The Rescue of Penelope in the Aldeburgh Festival and Ferruccio Busoni’s Arlecchino (both at Snape Maltings).

Christoher Foster's operatic roles include W.A. Mozart’s Figaro (Kentish Opera, First Act Opera) and Count Almaviva (covered for Sir John Eliot Gardiner), Don Alfonoso in Cosi fan tutte (Britten-Pears School), Massetto in Don Giovanni, Alidoro in La Cenerentola (First Act Opera), Germont Pere (Pavilion Opera), Baron Duophol (Clonter Opera) in La Traviata, Marcello in La Bohème Bohème (Opera del Mar), Morales and El Dancairo in Carmen (Pavilion Opera), Marullo in Rigoletto (Pavilion Opera), Arthur in Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse, Sam in Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti (Gent, Belgium) and Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress (studied at the Britten-Pears School).

His recordings include Purcell’s Timon of Athens conducted by Trevor Pinnock and J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 34 conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner both for Deutsche Grammophon.

Source: Singers Direct Website
Contributed by Christopher Foster (November 2003)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

John Eliot Gardiner

Bass

BWV 34

John Eliot Gardiner

Bass

Member of Monteverdi Choir:
BCP Vol. 1: CD-2: BWV 75, BWV 39, BWV 20
BCP Vol. 3: CD-1: BWV 24, BWV 185, BWV 177, BWV 71; CD-2: BWV 131, BWV 93, BWV 88
BCP Vol. 4: CD-1: BWV 9, J. Kuhnau/J.S. Bach: Motet Der Gerechte kömmt um
BCP Vol. 5: CD-2: BWV 46, BWV 101, BWV 102
BCP Vol. 6: CD-1: BWV 69a, BWV 137
BCP Vol. 7: CD-1: BWV 25, BWV 78, BWV 17
BCP Vol. 11: CD-1: BWV 162, BWV 180
BCP Vol. 14: BWV 91, BWV 121, BWV 40, BWV 110
BCP Vol. 15: BWV 64, BWV 151, BWV 57, BWV 133
BCP Vol. 16: BWV 225, BWV 122, BWV 28, BWV 190
BCP Vol. 17: CD-1: BWV 143, BWV 41, BWV 16, BWV 171; CD-2: BWV 153, BWV 58
BCP Vol. 18: CD-1: BWV 65, BWV 123; CD-2: BWV 154, BWV 124, BWV 32
BCP Vol. 24: CD-1: BWV 12, BWV 103, BWV 146; CD-2: BWV 166, BWV 108, BWV 117
BCP Trinity II: BWV 113, BWV 179
BCP Purification: BWV 83, BWV 125

Gustav Leonhardt

Bass

Member of Choir of the Age of Enlightenment
L-3 (1994): BWV 11, BWV 249

Trevor Pinnock

Bass

Member of The English Concert:
C-1 (1993/1994): BWV 110/1

Links to other Sites

Christopher Foster – Bass-Baritone (Singers Direct)