TIM TRAVERS-BROWN

Counter-Tenor

Tim Travers-Brown won an Exhibition Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Charles Brett and is a BA (Hons) graduate of Colchester Institute School of Music. He is now a Professor of Vocal Studies at Trinity College of Music, London and works with many of the foremost early music groups, orchestras and conductors.

On the concert platform, his engagements have included Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Tel Aviv with the Israel Chamber Orchestra under Nicholas Kraemer, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb and Purcell’s Ode for St Cecilia with the Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh in Aldeburgh and Poland, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the Bach Choir under David Hill, Bach’s St Matthew Passion for Sir John Eliot Gardiner at Cadogan Hall, Handel’s Dixit Dominus with the English Concert, Handel’s Judas Maccabeus with the London Handel Festival Orchestra under Laurence Cummings, and Bach’s St John Passion for Harry Christophers in Porto. He has also sung frequently as a chorister with the Monteverdi Choir, Tenebrae, Exaudi and La Grand Chappelle.  In opera, he has played the Spirit in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, the title role in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with Emily van Evera and the Coventry Philharmonic Choir for Peter Holman, Didymus in Handel’s Theodora at Dartington International Summer School, Purcell’s Fairy Queen and King Arthur for Armonico Touring Opera and chorus in the Royal Opera House production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (cover of the Spirit) and Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Tim has been a keen exponent in the revival of the smaller scale pre-Classical works involving period instruments, particularly those of Henry Purcell and his contemporaries, with the late lutenist Robert Spencer and The Musicke Companye (tour for the National Federation of Music Societies and concerts at Wigmore Hall). Further interest in the field of early music has been with the scholar Peter Holman, in works ranging from Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme to Schütz’s Resurrection Story, Vivaldi Nisi Dominus, Handel’s Esther and William Boyce’s Lament over David and Jonathan. Other highlights include Bach’s Cantatas in Japan with Bach Collegium Japan, John Blow’s Ode on the death of Henry Purcell with Michael Chance at Stour Music, Handel’s Birthday Ode for Queen Anne with the London Handel Festival Orchestra, Bach’s Actus Tragicus with Dunedin Consort (Scotland Tour), Monteverdi’s Vespers with the Barokk Solistene in Norway and Bach’s Cantatas with Martin Feinstein and the Festive Orchestra of London.

He has given lute-song recitals with David Miller (International Early Music Network Exhibition), James Akers (Handel House Museum) and Jacob Heringman (BBC Radio 3 Early Music Show). He has also given recitals of English Song with the pianists Jonathan Beatty (Oslo) and Jeremy Filsell (London).

As a recording artist, he appears regularly on television and radio, including Handel’s Messiah for BBC Radio 2 and scenes from Handel’s Tamerlano for the German RDS channel. Discs include Bach’s Cantatas with Bach Colleigum Japan for BIS, three discs with the Parley of Instruments for Hyperion, Handel and Company with the Musicke Companye for Intim Musik, a disc of music for Vespers by the 18th-century Spanish composer, José de Nebra, with La Grand Chappelle for Lauda Musica, Columcille with David Fitzgerald for ICC, and Pilgrimage to Santiago with the Monteverdi Choir for Soli Deo Gloria.  Tim released his debut CD in March 2009 for Signum Records, with the pianist Jeremy Filsell. Entitled The Frostbound Wood it is a collection of 20th-century British songs by Warlock, Howells, Betty Roe and Michael Stockwin Howard.