Alumni

Jonathan Brown

Baritone, Organ Scholar (1993-96)

“I feel privileged to have been a part of the Choir’s history”

“I arrived at Clare in 1993 fresh off an airplane from Canada, only to turn back to the US for a four-week Choir tour. The trip was a baptism of fire for me and also a brilliant way to start my tenure as Organ Scholar. I was able to forge relationships on that trip which endure to the present time. My three years flew by in a haze of recordings, tours, concerts and broadcasts. The standard of music making was consistently high. Indeed, many of my contemporaries have gone into the musical profession – as singers, organists and conductors.

The social element of any Choir cannot be underestimated and while we all tried to work to produce the best possible musical result, the group of singers and organists in my time were a closely knit group who spent time together not only within the confines of Choir, but outside of it as well. We made sure that we had a good time while we worked at something we were proud of. The Choir has gone from strength to strength since my time – I feel privileged to have been a part of its history.”

Jonathan Brown was born and raised in Toronto.  He has studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of Western Ontario and the Clare College, Cambridge, England as well as the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh with Sir Thomas Allen and Anthony Rolfe Johnson.  He now lives in London where he studies with Nicholas Powell.

Operatic roles include Marcello (La Bohème, Royal Albert Hall), Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore), Count Almaviva, Yamadori (Madam Butterfly), Giove (La Calisto), Orestes (Giasone), Garibaldo (Rodelinda), Ariodate (Xerxes), Silvio (I Pagliacci), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Shepherd (Venus and Adonis), Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas). He performed the role of Trojan (Idomeneo) for Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic in the Salzburg Easter Festival.  He has performed Orfeo (Pastore) at Lille Opera, Le Chatêlet, Paris and Opera du Rhin with Emmanuelle Haim.

He made his debut with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Holland (Naarden) in 2000 as the baritone soloist in a concert of Bach cantatas and thereafter was a regular soloist with performances in Zurich, Brussels and Paris.  Recent concert work has included a tour of St Matthew Passion (arias) across Europe (Spain, Andorra, Germany and the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the South Bank) and Bach’s Magnificat both conducted by Sir Roger Norrington, Saul in King’s College, Cambridge, Nelson Mass in Canterbury Cathedral, Brahms Requiem, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle and Handel Apollo e Daphne.

He has worked regularly with Philippe Herreweghe, touring South America (Christus in Bach’s St John Passion) and has also recorded the baritone solos in Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia for Harmonia Mundi. He featured as a soloist on the Harmonia Mundi recordings of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Blow’s Venus and Adonis under the direction of René Jacobs.  He has recorded the baritone solos in the Fauré Requiem with the London Festival Orchestra for BMG and the role of the Forester in Sullivan’s The Golden Legend for Hyperion.