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The English baritone, Ashley Riches, studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and English at Cambridge University, where he was a member of the King’s College Chapel Choir under Stephen Cleobury. Currently, he is a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Concert appearances include the UK Premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's Orango with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Messiah in Symphony Hall, Birmingham with Stephen Cleobury, J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) with Arcangelo at Flanders Festival in Ghent, Belshazzar’s Feast with David Temple at the Royal Festival Hall, L.v. Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Sir Roger Norrington, Verdi's Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall and Winchester Cathedral, George Frideric Handel's L’Allegro with the Gabrieli Consort at St John’s, Smith Square and in Beaune, W.A. Mozart's Requiem with David Hill and The Bach Choir, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with Jan Latham-Koenig and Novaya Opera, Moscow, J.S. Bach's Cantatas with the Academy of Ancient Music and Richard Egarr at the Wigmore Hall and G.F. Handel’s Israel in Egypt at Dartington with Jonathan Cohen.
Operatic appearances include the title roles in Eugene Onegin and W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni, Marcello and Schaunard in La Bohème, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, Father in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Tarquinius in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Sid in B. Britten's Albert Herring, Demetrius in B. Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ibn-Hakia in Iolanta and The Drunken Poet, Winter, Corydon and Sleep in The Fairy Queen with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea with Paul McCreesh and Claudio in Beatrice and Benedict with Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In November 2012 he made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden singing with Roberto in Alagna in a Gala Concert and appeared as Salieri in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri with the Jette Parker Young Artists at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Covent Garden for which he received outstanding reviews in the National Press.
He has given song recitals at Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, the City of London Festival, Chelsea Schubert Festival and Ludlow Festival and has recorded Francis Poulenc's Chansons Gaillardes with Graham Johnson for Hyperion. He recently sang several G.F. Handel arias for a David Starkey TV series “Monarchy and Music” with the Academy of Ancient Music and Richard Egarr and has recorded Pilate in J.S. Bach's St John Passion (BWV 245) with Richard Egarr and Mercury in Daniel Purcell’s The Judgement of Paris.
Future plans include Guglielmo Così fan tutte with Garsington Opera, title role in Owen Wingrave at Opéra National de Lorraine, Messiah with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Richard Egarr. His roles at Covent Garden in the 2013-2014 season include Morales in Carmen, Mandarin in Turandot, Baron Douphol in La Traviata, Officier in Les Dialogues des Carmelites and Osmano in L’Ormindo at the Globe Theatre.
Ashley Riches is a Hazard Chase Young Associate Artist. |
