Robin Blaze

Now established in the front rank of interpreters of Purcell, Bach and Handel, Robin Blaze’s busy schedule has taken him to Europe, South America, North America, Japan and Australia. He read Music at Magdalen College, Oxford and won a post-graduate scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he trained with assistance from the Countess of Munster Trust and is now a Professor of Vocal Studies.

He works with most of the distinguished conductors in the early music field – Christophers, Cleobury, Gardiner, Herreweghe, Hickox, Hogwood, Jacobs, King, Koopman, Kraemer, Leonhardt, McCreesh, McGegan, Mackerras, Pinnock and Suzuki. He has visited festivals in Ambronay, Beaune, Boston, Edinburgh, Halle, Iceland, Jerusalem, Innsbruck, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Lucerne, Saintes and Utrecht. He regularly appears with The Academy of Ancient Music, Bach Collegium Japan, Collegium Vocale, The English Concert, The Gabrieli Consort, The King’s Consort, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, RIAS Kammerchor and The Sixteen. Other engagements have included the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, La Chapelle Royale, City of London Sinfonia, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, The Hallé Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Robin’s opera engagements have included Athamas Semele at The Royal Opera House; Didymus Theodora for Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Arsamenes Xerxes, Athamas Semele, Hamor Jephtha and Oberon A Midsummer Night’s Dream for English National Opera, and Bertarido Rodelinda for Glyndebourne Touring Opera and at the Göttingen Handel Festival.

Chamber music is an important part of his musical life and Robin regularly joins forces with Concordia, Fretwork, Florilegium and The Palladian Ensemble. He has given recitals in Tenerife, at the Théâtre Grévin in Paris, in Karlsruhe, Innsbruck, Göttingen, at the York Early Music, West Cork International Chamber Music, Sherbourne and Gloucester Three Choirs Festivals, for BBC Radio 3 and at The Wigmore Hall.

With a fast-growing number of acclaimed recordings to his name Robin continues to enjoy fruitful relationships with BIS and Hyperion records. For BIS he is adding to their Cantata Cycle with Bach Collegium Japan and joined Carolyn Sampson for a disc of Handel Oratorio Duets with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Nicholas Kraemer. His projects with Hyperion have included recital discs of lute songs with Elizabeth Kenny, Byrd Consort Songs and Salve Regina, a programme of Italian Cantatas with The Parley of Instruments. Amongst his other recordings are Didymus in Theodora with The Gabrieli Consort and McCreesh for DG Archiv, Vivaldi, Kuhnau and Knüpfer with The King’s Consort, all for Hyperion, and Purcell’s Odes with Collegium Vocale Gent and Herreweghe for Harmonia Mundi. He also recorded Thomas Adès’ The Lover in Winter for EMI.

Robin’s recent engagements include Guido Flavio with the Academy of Ancient Music and Christopher Hogwood, Israel in Egypt with Concerto Köln at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and with the SCO at the Edinburgh International Festival conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm, and Bach’s St John Passion at the BBC Proms with The Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner.  Concerts this season and beyond include Handel’s Athalia with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan, Messiah with Bernard Labadie in Colorado and Vancouver, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging and Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Jephtha for The King’s Consort, a tour of Europe with Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe and a recital with Sonnerie at the Lufthansa Baroque Festival. His disc of solo Bach Cantatas with Masaaki Suzuki was released at the beginning of 2007 on the BIS label.

Hiroya Aoki

The Japanese countertenor Hiroya Aoki was born in Tokyo in 1976, and received his master’s degree in early music from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and master’s degree in sacred music from the Elisabeth University of Music Hiroshima.  During his undergraduate days, he began to visit Europe regularly to deepen his musical experiences.  He studied vocal music with Hitoshi Suzuki, Sadao Udagawa, Max van Egmond, Yukari Nonoshita, Peter Kooij, Gerd Türk and Robin Blaze.  He is a member of the Bach Collegium Japan, the Vocal Ensemble CAPPELLA, the Ensemble CORURI and the Philharmonie Kammer Ensemble, currently.

As a religious music expert Hiroya Aoki specialize in oratorios and cantatas such as J. S. Bach’s both St. Matthew and St. John Passion, several cantatas,   G. F. Handel’s Messiah, Deborah and Theodora.  He appeared as a soloist of Messiah in Dublin (Ireland) and Mass in B-minor, Christmas Oratorio and Messiah at St. Nikolaikirche in Leipzig (Germany). He is currently widening his activity steadily abroad.

In 2007, Hiroya Aoki was invited to the commemorative concert in Dublin for the 50th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and Ireland and sang the alto solo of Messiah (conducted by P. O Duinn) at which he won a great popularity.  As a member of the Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ), he engaged concerts and sound recordings in various countries both home and abroad.  In 2009, he performed Bach’s St. John Passion and several church cantatas at music festival ‘La Folle Journee au Japon’ as a soloist of the BCJ and also Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the BCJ’s Germany tour.

Hiroya Aoki has participated actively as a chorus master in recent years. He is enjoying a good reputation as seen in a review: ‘His watertight rendering, elegant scenic depiction and superb handling of both the vocal and instrumental forces are derived from his high adaptability and experienced judgment earned through his past’.