Christopher Maltman, baritone, Graham Johnson, piano
Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 7:30 PM Embassy of Austria

Winner of the Lieder Prize at the 1997 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Christopher Maltman read biochemistry at Warwick University and studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music.

He recently made an acclaimed debut at the Salzburg Festival in the title role of Don Giovanni. He is a reqular guest at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where he has sung Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Marcello (La bohème), Ramiro (L’heure espagnole), Malatesta (Don Pasquale) and he created the role of Sebastian in the world premiere of Thomas Adès’ ‘The Tempest’.  His roles at the Glyndebourne Festival have included Papageno, Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) and Sid (Albert Herring).  At the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, he has sung Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Guglielmo, Marcello and Albert (Werther).  Other opera appearances in Europe include Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) and Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas) in Vienna; Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at the Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin and Tarquinius at the Aldeburgh Festival and at the English National Opera.  An acclaimed Billy Budd, he has sung the role at Welsh National Opera, Teatro Regio in Turin, Seattle and in Munich. 

In the U.S. he has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, New York as Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos); in San Francisco as Papageno; in Seattle as Guglielmo and in San Diego as Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Laurent (Therese Raquin).

His future engagements include returns to Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Salzburg Festival and his debut at the Paris Opera.

His concert engagements have included the Cleveland Orchestra with Welser-Möst, Philharmonia Orchestra with von Dohnanyi, BBC Symphony Orchestra with John Adams, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Norrington, London Symphony Orchestra with Rattle, Otaka and Sir Colin Davis, Concentus Musicus Wien with Harnoncourt, Dresden Staatskapelle with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Boston Symphony Orchestra with James Conlon, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Kurt Masur.

A renowned recitalist, he has appeared at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Salzburg Mozarteum, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Philharmonie in Cologne, in New York at both Carnegie Hall and at the Lincoln Center, and at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh and Cheltenham Festivals.  He is a regular guest at the Wigmore Hall and at the Schwartzenberg Schubertiade Festival.

He has recorded the Vaughan Williams 'Serenade to Music' for Decca; Warlock, Holst and Somervell songs for Collins Classics; and he took part in Deutsche Grammophon's complete Beethoven Folk Song project.  His recording of Schumann’s ‘Dichterliebe’ for Hyperion was released to tremendous critical acclaim and he has recently recorded Schumann’s ‘Liederkreis’, Op.24, with Graham Johnson, a Debussy album with Malcolm Martineau and a disc of English songs with Roger Vignoles.  On film, he has appeared in John Adams’ award-winning ‘The Death of Klinghoffer’.

Website: christophermaltman.moonfruit.com

Graham Johnson is recognised as one of the world’s leading vocal accompanists. Born in Rhodesia, he came to London to study in 1967. After leaving the Royal Academy of Music his teachers included Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons. In 1972 he was the official pianist at Peter Pears' first masterclasses at The Maltings, Snape which brought him into contact with Benjamin Britten – a link which strengthened his determination to accompany. In 1976 he formed the Songmakers' Almanac to explore neglected areas of piano-accompanied vocal music; the founder singers were Dame Felicity Lott, Ann Murray DBE, Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Richard Jackson – artists with whom he has established long and fruitful collaborations both on the concert platform and the recording studio. Some two hundred and fifty Songmakers' programmes were presented over the years. Graham Johnson has accompanied such distinguished singers as Sir Thomas Allen, Victoria de los Angeles, Elly Ameling, Arleen Auger, Ian Bostridge, Brigitte Fassbaender, Matthias Goerne, Thomas Hampson, Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager, Philip Langridge, Serge Leiferkus, Angelika Kirchschlager, Christopher Maltman, Edith Mathis, Lucia Popp, Christoph Prégardien, Dame Margaret Price, Thomas Quastoff, Dorothea Röschmann, Kate Royal, Peter Schreier, Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Sarah Walker.

His relationship with the Wigmore Hall is a special one. He devised and accompanied concerts in the hall’s re-opening series in 1992, and in its centenary celebrations in 2001. He has been Chairman of the jury for the Wigmore Hall Song Competition since its inception. He is Senior Professor of Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and has led a biennial scheme for Young Songmakers since 1985. He has had a long and fruitful link with Ted Perry and Hyperion Records for whom he has devised and accompanied a set of complete Schubert Lieder on 37 discs, a milestone in the history of recording. A complete Schumann series is halfway completed, and there is an ongoing French Song series where the complete songs of such composers as Chausson, Chabrier and Fauré are either already available, or in preparation. All these discs are issued with Graham Johnson’s own programme notes which set new standards for CD annotations. He has also recorded for Sony, BMG, Harmonia Mundi, Forlane, EMI and DGG. Awards include the Gramophone solo vocal award in 1989 (with Dame Janet Baker), 1996 (Die schone Müllerin with Ian Bostridge), 1997 (for the inauguration of the Schumann series with Christine Schäfer) and 2001 (with Magdalena Kozena). He was The Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 1998; in June 2000 he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He is author of The Songmakers’ Almanac; Twenty years of recitals in London, The French Song Companion for OUP (2000) and The Vocal Music of Benjamin Britten (Guildhall 2003).

He was made an OBE in the 1994 Queen's Birthday Honours list and in 2002 he was created Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Government.