Marcus Farnsworth
Marcus Farnsworth was awarded first prize in the 2009 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition, and the Song Prize at the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Competition.
Forthcoming recitals include debuts at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and La Monnaie, Brussels with Mark Padmore and Julius Drake and a return to the Wigmore Hall to sing Tit for Tat with Malcolm Martineau and Canticles with Julius Drake as part of their 2012 Britten Festival. Marcus will also give
four concerts for the Australian Chamber Music Festival, with music by Barber, Britten, Poulenc and Brahms; a recital for the Lammermuir Festival and BBC Radio 3; a recital of Hugo Wolf for the Oxford Lieder Festival, to be recorded and concerts with the Carducci Quartet including Finzi Footpath and Stile and Barber Dover Beach. Recent highlights have included a Wigmore Hall recital with James Baillieu and further recitals with Simon Lepper, Iain Burnside, and Graham Johnson. Marcus has also taken part in a Schubertiade with The Prince Consort in Perth and will appear with the Myrthen Ensemble at the Wigmore Hall in 2013.
Opera plans this season and beyond include Eddy in Mark-Anthony Turnage Greek for Music Theatre Wales; Gugliemo in a new production by Katie Mitchell of Mozart Così fan tutte and English Clerk in Britten Death in Venice for English National Opera and in concert, Sid in Britten Albert Herring with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Steuart Bedford.
Concert plans include Britten War Requiem with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and at Truro Cathedral; Berlioz L’enfance du Christ with the BBC SO; Dvorak Te Deum with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Monteverdi Vespers, on tour, including Lille and Essen with Emmanuelle Haïm; Haydn Paukenmesse with the BBC Scottish SO and Bernard Labardie; St Matthew Passion (Christus and bass arias) in Poland with the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh and Peter Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King on a UK tour with the Hebrides Ensemble. In 2013, Marcus will sing Son in a new work by David Sawer Flesh and Blood with the BBCSO and Ilan Volkov and take part in a European tour and recording of Thomas Larcher’s Die Nacht der Verlorenen for baritone and ensemble.
Recent opera highlights include Novice’s Friend in Britten Billy Budd for ENO; the title role in Britten Owen Wingrave for the International Chamber Music Festival in Nuremberg and in concert, Kilian Der Freischütz with the LSO and Sir Colin Davis and Aeneas in Purcell Dido and Aeneas for the Early Opera Company and Christian Curnyn at Wigmore Hall.
Marcus has also recently sung Nielsen Symphony No 3 with the LSO and Colin Davis; Bach Ich habe Genug and St John Passion (arias) with the Academy of Ancient Music; Eight Songs for a Mad King with the Wermlands Opera Orchestra, Karlstad, Sweden and Bach St John and St Matthew Passions (Christus and bass arias) with the Gabrieli Consort.
Marcus was a chorister at Southwell Minster and read music at the University of Manchester, graduating with a first class honours degree. He completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in July 2011, where roles included Guglielmo Così fan tutte; Sid Albert Herring; Oreste in Cavalli Giasone and Meredith in Peter Maxwell Davies Kommilitonen!