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A former choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, Hugh Cutting is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music
where he was a member of the International Opera Studio. On graduating, he was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal,
presented by King Charles III. In the autumn of 2021, Hugh became the first countertenor to win the Kathleen Ferrier Award
and is the first countertenor to become a BBC New Generation Artist (2022-24).
In the 2021/22 season Hugh was a member of Les Arts Florissants 10th Jardin des Voix and received critical acclaim for his
portrayal of Arsace in Handel’s Partenope conducted by William Christie. Further highlights included his Carnegie Hall debut
singing Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Orchestra of St Luke’s and Bernard Labadie; Refugee in Dove’s Flight and
Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda with the RCM International Opera Studio, Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater at the London Handel
Festival with Adrian Butterfield; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Southbank Sinfonia; Tavener’s The Hidden Face with the
City of London Sinfonia; Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Bach’s Geist und Seele
with the Oxford Bach Soloists; Handel’s Messiah with Instruments of Time and Truth and Edward Higginbottom; Purcell
Odes for a Queen with The English Concert and Kristian Bezuidenhout, and a performance of Bach and Handel arias with
the Hanover Band and Laurence Cummings.
This season Hugh makes his debut at Opernhaus Zürich singing Monteverdi madrigals in Christian Spuck’s ballet setting.
Upcoming concert engagements include multiple appearances at the Wigmore Hall alongside Iestyn Davies and Ensemble
Guadagni, La Nuova Musica, The English Concert, and The Sixteen; a world premiere with the BBC Philharmonic and an
appearance at the Oxford Lieder Festival; Handel’s Messiah with The Sixteen and Harry Christophers and with the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Adrian Lucas; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras and
John Eliot Gardiner; Bach’s B Minor Mass with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Vaclav Luks; Bach’s St
Matthew Passion with the Finnish Radio Orchestra and Nick Collon and in a European tour with Collegium Vocale Gent
and Philippe Herreweghe, as well as multiple projects with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie including Polinesso in
Handel’s Ariodante and Arsace Partenope.
Song is central to Hugh’s ambition, and he seeks to expand the possibilities of countertenor repertoire in this sphere. In
2022/23 he appears in recital at the Wigmore Hall, Ryedale Festival, and at the Thames Recital Series with ‘Untethered’, a
programme based on Michael A. Singer’s book ‘The Untethered Soul’, which centres around the concept of liberation,
namely from the thoughts and perspectives that disturb our daily lives. Many of these works will be recorded as part of
Hugh’s involvement in the BBC New Generation Artist scheme for later broadcast on Radio 3. He frequently collaborates
with pianist George Ireland, lutenist Danny Murphy and composer Piers Connor Kennedy both in recital and concert.
Hugh works regularly with SoundVoice UK and composer Hannah Conway, most recently performing at Snape Maltings
and King’s Place alongside Roderick Williams and Lucy Crowe in a project exploring identity and voice loss in terminal
health conditions.
He has recorded Purcell Royal Odes and Birthday Odes for Queen Mary with The King’s Consort and Robert King alongside
Iestyn Davies and Carolyn Sampson, and Lamento with Iestyn Davies and Fretwork for Signum Classics.
“ The staggering, joyful artistry of Joyce DiDonato reminds us that in any generation there are a few giants. Joyce is not only a great, brave and inspiring artist – one of the finest singers of our time- but she is also a transformative presence in the arts. Those who know her repertoire are in awe of her gifts, and those who know nothing of it are instantly engaged. Joyce sings and the world is suddenly brighter. She compels us to listen actively, to hear things anew.” Jake Heggie, Gramophone
Multi-Grammy Award winner and 2018 Olivier Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, Kansas-born Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe, and has been proclaimed “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by The New Yorker. With a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” according to The Times, Joyce has soared to the top of the industry both as a performer and a fierce advocate for the arts, gaining international prominence in operas by Handel and Mozart, as well as through her varied and highly acclaimed discography. She is also widely celebrated for the bel canto roles of Rossini and Donizetti.
Joyce’s exciting 2022/23 season includes further touring of her newly released album EDEN around Europe and the USA with Il Pomo d’Oro and Maxim Emelyanychev, Virginia Wolf in The Met’s world-premiere production of Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts’s The Hours, Patricia Westertord in Tod Machover’s Overstory Overture at Alice Tully Hall in New York and Seoul Arts Center in South Korea and a residency at Musikkollegium Winterthur.
Recent highlights have included European tours of her baroque-inspired programme My Favourite Things with Il Pomo d’Oro, in cities including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Bucharest, Barcelona, Antwerp and Lisbon, as well as her Winterreise and In My Solitude recital programmes with pianist and long-time collaboratorCraig Terry. Joyce also returned to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Irene in Handel’s Theodora alongside Julia Bullock and Jakub Józef Orliński.
In opera, Joyce’s recent roles includeAgrippina at the Metropolitan Opera and in a new production at the Royal Opera House, Didon Les Troyens at the Vienna State Opera; Sesto, Cendrillon and Adalgisa Norma at the Metropolitan Opera, Agrippina in concert with Il Pomo d’Oro under Maxim Emelyanchev; Sister Helen Dead Man Walking at the Teatro Real Madrid and London’s Barbican Centre; Semiramide at the Bavarian State Opera and Royal Opera House, and Charlotte Werther at the Royal Opera.
Much in demand on the concert and recital circuit, Joyce has held residencies at Carnegie Hall and at London’s Barbican Centre, toured extensively in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia and appeared as guest soloist at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Other concert highlights include the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Accademia Santa Cecilia Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra USA under Sir Antonio Pappano.
An exclusive recording artist with Warner Classics/Erato, Joyce’s expansive discography includes Les Troyens which in 2018 won the Recording (Complete Opera) category at the International Opera Awards, the Opera Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards and Gramophone’s Recording of the Year, and Handel’s Agrippina which won the Gramophone Opera Recording and Limelight Opera Recording of the Year awards in 2020. Joyce’s other albums include her celebrated Winterreise with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Songplay, In War & Peace which won the 2017 Best Recital Gramophone Award, Stella di Napoli, her GrammyAward-winning Diva Divo and Drama Queens. Other honours include the Gramophone Artist of the Year and Recital of the Year awards, and an induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Lester Lynch has become recognized for his charismatic portrayals and commanding voice as he takes on some of Verdi’s most important characters with rave reviews, from Macbeth to Rigoletto to Simon Boccanegra. Extending his repertoire far beyond the great Verdi roles, he is also known as an expert in contemporary opera with his performances of Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero, Busoni’s Doktor Faust and Nico Muhly’s The Glitch, garnering many accolades.
Lynch made his debut at the renowned Teatro alla Scala singing the role of Crown in Porgy and Bess and at the Royal Opera House as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Other appearances on the world’s major stages include Lyric Opera of Chicago, Semperoper Dresden, Seattle Opera, the Volksoper in Vienna, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera and San Francisco Opera.
Most recently, Mr. Lynch performed the Forester in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen with English National Opera and made his debut as Wotan in Wagner’s Das Rheingold with Nashville Opera. He made his film debut in November 2021 as Merrivale in Gordon Getty’s new opera, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, based on the popular 1934 novella by James Hilton.
Upcoming highlights include the title character in Verdi’s Nabucco, a return to the role of Wotan and concerts with Sir Simon Rattle.
Mr. Lynch’s recording work is featured on Pentatone, including performances as Iago in Verdi’s Otello, Scarpia in Tosca, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Michele in Puccini’s Il Tabarro, Germont in La Traviata and his debut solo album, “On My Journey Now.”
For more information about Lester, please visit www.lesterlynch.com.
One of the most original and versatile musicians on the Polish music scene. He plays all keyboard instruments, composes, conducts, produces, arranges, educates and curates. His activities include a wide range of styles. He is known for his groundbreaking crossover projects and for pushing the boundaries between high and entertainment art.
Masecki’s first passion are jazz and improvised music. In recent years, his main project has been the Młynarski-Masecki Jazz Band, an orchestra he runs together with Jan Młynarski; it presents Polish entertainment music from the interwar period in new, original arrangements. In addition, Masecki has his own trio performing original music. He is also involved in various duos with, among others, Jerzy Rogiewicz, Kaja Draksler, Barry Guy, Alexander Hawkins and, in the past, with Tomasz Stańko.
As a classically trained pianist, Masecki regularly takes up the theme of Europe’s musical legacy, interpreting it with a rare combination of ease and erudition. In September 2022, his album featuring piano concertos by Bach and Mozart – recorded with the MACV Baroque orchestra – was released. His previous CDs include Chopin’s Nocturnes, Beethoven’s Last Sonatas and Scarlatti’s Sonatas.
Masecki is also a conductor. He co-operates with the Capella Cracoviensis on the monumental cycle “Complete Haydn Symphonies” and also conducts his own compositions. In December 2022, the premiere of his Symphony No. 3, written for the Estonian Parnu Chamber Orchestra, took place. He has established the Palais Royale Orchestra, which with he performed the world premiere of the original version of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in the Concert Studio of Polish Radio. His smallest ensemble is the nonet Polonezy, presenting an original set of Polish national dances.
Masecki also curates the capital’s musical life. He organizes periodical events at the Studio Theatre in Warsaw during which he introduces the audience to the world of classical music in an accessible and engaging way. So far, “Dżemsesje klasyczne” [Classical Jam Sessions] have been held – the jazz jam session format transferred to the realm of classical music. A year earlier, it was “Transkrypcje” [Transcriptions] – weekly concerts presenting complete Beethoven symphonies in chamber arrangements. The latest cycle is called “Barok Barok” [Baroque Baroque] – chamber concerts recalling lesser-known Baroque music in a relaxed, lounge atmosphere.
Masecki also composes music for film and theatre. In 2022, he received an Eagle (Polish Film Award) for music for the film Powrót do tamtych dni [Back to Those Days]. He was an arranger, composer and music consultant for the film Cold War by Paweł Pawlikowski. He worked on Agnieszka Holland’s film Mr. Jones, Krzysztof Skonieczny’s series Blinded by the Light and Olga Chajdas’1983. Earlier, he had created the soundtrack for the film Obce niebo [Strange Heaven] by Dariusz Gajewski and for Fuck For Forrest by Michał Marczak.
The list is topped with Masecki as a teacher. Every year, he runs an improvisation class at the Ensemble Festival.
An outstanding pianist and composer who brought about an unprecedented mental and stylistic revolution in Polish jazz.
He put difficult jazz phrases, complicated improvisations, the melodies of jazz standards and the subtlety of composition into a specific kind of jazz that became ‘Leszek Możdżer’s jazz’ of vibrant expression; at the same time, Możdżer does not strive for effusiveness towards listeners, commercialism or show. Jazz imagination, an interesting idea for improvisation, the subtlety of Chopin’s etudes and mazurkas, ‘Komeda’ inspirations – in his music, they all create a new tone colour in jazz piano chamber music.
The musician belongs to one of the most interesting phenomena of Polish jazz in recent decades. Initially, he was associated with the ‘yass’ formation Miłość. Then he performed in many jazz configurations, e.g. in the bands of Emil Kowalski, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Tomasz Stańko, Buddy de Franco, David Friesen, Archie Shepp, Michał Urbaniak, Adam Pierończyk or Arthur Blythe. The pianist’s extensive discography features over a hundred albums implemented as his own projects or in co-operation with outstanding artists. He records and performs with such musicians as David Gilmour, Naná Vasconcelos, Marcus Miller, John Scofield, Tan Dun or Pat Metheny. Concerts, recordings and his co–operation with composer Zbigniew Preisner brought Możdżer great popularity and recognition. Their joint projects such as ‘Requiem for my Friend’ and ‘10 Easy Pieces for Piano Solo’ proved to be unparalleled artistic events.
The album Impressions On Chopin (recorded in 1999) is already part of the canon of the recordings inspired by the output of the brilliant Polish composer. Leszek Możdżer also works with Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (recordings for the Oscar-winning score for the film Finding Neverland and the album Kaczmarek by Możdżer) as well as composes music for film and theatre. The pianist is most at ease in solo projects and in his own trio with Lars Danielsson and Zohar Fresco (the album The Time recorded in 2005 reached the Diamond status, while Between Us And The Light (2006), Live (2007) and Polska (2013) – the Double Platinum status). In 2017, he recorded an album with Holland Baroque entitled Earth Particles. 2021 saw the release of Just Ignore It, implemented with Lars Danielsson, Zohar Fresco and Holland Baroque. Możdżer is also the artistic director of the Enter Enea Festival.
For the score for Maciej Pieprzyca’s film entitled Ikar. Legenda Mietka Kosza [Icarus. The Legend of Mietek Kosz], Leszek Możdżer won in the category Best Music at the 44th Gdynia Festival of Polish Feature Films, the Orły 2020 Film Award, an award for the best Polish Soundtrack of the Year 2019 awarded by 50 music and film experts as part of the Film Music Festival in Cracow, an award of the 9th Grand Prix Komeda Film Festival and a Fryderyk in the category Album of the Year – Illustrative Music. The film score was also awarded with: MocArty RMF Classic, Olśnienia Onetu, Empik Bestseller nomination and a Special Award of the 34th Tarnów Film Award.
Leszek Możdżer thus manifests himself as a creator of a new style in jazz music; a style in which the sound and atmosphere are built with impression and mood and a unique performing style. Perhaps this is why the pianist is considered an eloquent jazz creator of the young generation: a sophisticated artistic proposal, composed of musical fascinations and discoveries of Leszek Możdżer – the most popular jazz musician in Poland today.
© Dionizy Piątkowski author of the Polish Jazz Encyclopaedia
Graduate of the Academy of Music in Cracow in Composition (2002). From 2005 to 2012, member of the Levity band; he recorded three albums with them: Levity (2009), Chopin Shuffle (2010) and Afternoon Delights (2011). From 2009 to 2011, drummer for Pink Freud.
In 2013, together with Igor Nikiforow, he founded the Jerz Igor project – its aim is to perform original music for children (Mała Płyta – 2014; Zimą – 2015). Since 2010, he has been co-operating with Marcin Masecki, among others, in the Ragtajmy duo, Marcin Masecki Jazz Trio, in the ensembles Profesjonalizm, Polonezy, V/TLD or Młynarski-Masecki Jazz Band. As an improviser, he has performed with such artists as Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Toshinori Kondo, DJ LENAR, Wojtek Mazolewski, Tomasz Duda or Paweł Szamburski. He has worked with Gabriela Kulka and Maja Kleszcz. As a conductor, he made his debut with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra performing Zbigniew Wodecki’s debut album with the Mitch&Mitch ensemble (2015). Author of film music (New World, dir. Elżbieta Benkowska, Łukasz Ostalski, Michał Wawrzecki, 2015; Hangover, dir. Maciej Buchwald, 2015; A Worried Man, dir. Maciej Buchwald, 2017; documentary Zhalanash, dir. Marcin Sauter, 2017; The Mute, dir. Bartek Konopka, 2018; series Mały Grand Hotel, dir. Bartek Konopka, 2019) and theatre music (The Coming Spring, dir. Natalia Korczakowska, 2015; The Doll, dir. Aneta Groszyńska 2015; The Jew – TV theatre, dir. Aneta Groszyńska-Liweń, 2015; Hunger, dir. Aneta Groszyńska-Liweń, 2016; Messiahs, dir. Aneta Groszyńska-Liweń, 2018). In 2019, he composed a musical fairy tale for children’s solo voices, choir and symphony orchestra entitled King Matt the First, based on the novel by Janusz Korczak, adapted by Grzegorz Uzdański, on commission of the POLIN Museum. In the same year, he created music for the play Greta and the Last Whale, directed by Maciej Podstawny, and for the plays The Maids of Wilko (dir. Agnieszka Glińska) and The Butterfly (dir. Marcin Liber), in co-operation with Igor Nikiforow. He is also the author of music for the audio series Czarny Romans, directed by Michał Marczak. He is currently working on music for the feature film The City, directed by Marcin Sauter, the feature film Triple Trouble, directed by Marta Karwowska, and a new crime series by Bartek Konopka.
An ensemble of singers and instrumentalists specialized in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments, Les Arts Florissants are renowned the world over. Founded in 1979 by the Franco-American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie, the Ensemble, named for a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, has played a pioneering role in the revival of a Baroque repertoire that had long been neglected (including the rediscovery of countless treasures in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Today that repertoire is widely performed and admired: not only French music from the reign of Louis XIV, but also more generally European music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Since 2007, the Ensemble is also conducted by the British tenor Paul Agnew, who is appointed Musical Codirector of Les Arts Florissants in 2019.
Each season Les Arts Florissants give around 100 concerts and opera performances in France—at the Philharmonie de Paris, where they are artists in residence, the Théâtre de Caen, the Opéra Comique, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Château de Versailles, as well as at numerous festivals—and are an active ambassador for French culture abroad, being regularly invited to New York, London, Edinburgh, Brussels, Vienna, Salzburg, Madrid, Barcelona, Moscow, and elsewhere.
Since the 1987 production of Lully’s Atys at the Opéra Comique in Paris, which was triumphantly revived in May 2011, it has been on the opera stage that Les Arts Florissants have enjoyed their greatest successes. Notable productions include works by Rameau (Les Indes galantes, Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Boréades, Les Paladins, Platée), Lully and Charpentier (Médée, David et Jonathas, Les Arts florissants, Armide), Handel (Orlando, Acis and Galatea, Semele, Alcina, Serse, Hercules, L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato), Purcell (King Arthur, Dido and Aeneas, The Fairy Queen), Mozart (The Magic Flute, Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Monteverdi (his opera trilogy), but also by composers who are less frequently played, such as Landi (Il Sant’Alessio), Cesti (Il Tito), Campra (Les Fêtes vénitiennes) and Hérold (Zampa).
For their theater productions, Les Arts Florissants have called on the talents of some of the greatest stage directors, including Jean-Marie Villégier, Robert Carsen, Adrian Noble, Andrei Serban, Luc Bondy, Deborah Warner, David McVicar, Claus Guth and Jérôme Deschamps and Macha Makeïeff, as well as on renowned choreographers such as Béatrice Massin, Ana Yepes, Jirí Kylián, Blanca Li, Trisha Brown, Robyn Orlin, José Montalvo, Françoise Denieau and Dominique Hervieu.
Les Arts Florissants enjoy an equally high profile in the concert hall, as illustrated by their many acclaimed concert or semi-staged performances of operas and oratorios (Rameau’s Zoroastre, Anacréon and Les Fêtes d’Hébé, Charpentier’s Actéon and La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, Campra’s Idoménée and Mozart’s Idomeneo, Montéclair’s Jephté, Rossi’s L’Orfeo and Handel’s Giulio Cesare with Cecilia Bartoli as well as his Messiah, Theodora, Susanna, Jephtha and Belshazzar), their secular and sacred chamber-music programs (petits motets by Lully and Charpentier, madrigals by Monteverdi and Gesualdo, court airs by Lambert, hymns by Purcell, among others) and their approach to large-scale works (particularly the grands motets by Rameau, Mondonville, Campra and Charpentier, as well as Handel’s Messiah and J.S. Bach’s Matthew’s and John’s Passion).
The Ensemble has produced an impressive discography: nearly 100 recordings (CD and DVD) and its own collection in collaboration with harmonia mundi directed by William Christie and Paul Agnew.
In recent years, Les Arts Florissants have launched several education programs for young musicians. The most emblematic is the Academy of Le Jardin des Voix: created in 2002, it is held every two years and has already brought a substantial number of new singers into the limelight. The Arts Flo Juniors program, launched in 2007, enables conservatory students to join the orchestra and chorus for the length of a production, from the first day of rehearsals up to the final performance. And then there is the partnership between William Christie, Les Arts Florissants and New York’s Juilliard School of Music, which since 2007 has allowed a fruitful artistic exchange between the U.S. and France. Launched in 2021, a yearly program of masterclasses in Thiré (Vendée, Pays de la Loire) comes to complete this panel of programs with short working sessions led by William Christie and Paul Agnew, to help young professionals improve their skills.
Les Arts Florissants also organize numerous events aimed at building new audiences. Linked to each year’s concert program, they are designed for both amateur musicians and non-musicians, adults as much as children.
In 2012, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants created the festival Dans les Jardins de William Christie, in partnership with the Conseil départemental de la Vendée. An annual event, the festival brings together artists from Les Arts Florissants, pupils from the Juilliard School and finalists from Le Jardin des Voix for concerts and promenades musicales in the gardens created by William Christie at Thiré, in the Vendée. In addition to the festival, Les Arts Florissants are working with the endowment fund Les Jardins de Musique de William Christie towards the creation of a permanent cultural venue in Thiré. In 2017, following a decision by the French Ministry of Culture, Les Arts Florissants and the endowment fund « Les Jardins de Musique de William Christie » have been awarded the national label « Centre culturel de Rencontre », which distinguishes projects associating creation, patrimony and transmission. In 2018, Les Arts Florissants become the Foundation Les Arts Florissants – William Christie.
Les Arts Florissants receives financial support from the State — the Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs (DRAC), the Département de la Vendée and the Région Pays de la Loire. The Selz Foundation is their Principal Sponsor. Aline Foriel-Destezet and the American Friends of Les Arts Florissants are Major Sponsors. Les Arts Florissants has been ensemble in residence at the Philharmonie de Paris and is recognized as a “Heritage Site for Culture”.
