Davina Clarke, Mary Bevan & The Davina Clarke Ensemble
Biography Davina Clarke, Mary Bevan & The Davina Clarke Ensemble
Davina Clarke
performs around the world with the UK’s most highly regarded period ensembles – The English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, The Academy of Ancient Music, Dunedin Consort, Arcangelo, The Sixteen and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Davina read music at The University of Manchester where she held a McMynn Scholarship. She graduated with a First Class Honours and went on to pursue a Masters at the Royal Academy of Music where she studied under Simon Standage and Rachel Podger. During her time there, she won the Roy Burcher and Tebbutt Exhibition Awards, and was awarded a First Class Distinction and a DipRAM for an outstanding Final Recital.
Davina continues her long association with the Royal Academy as a Guest Principal in the Kohn Bach Cantata Series. In addition, she has just been made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for her outstanding contribution to the music industry.
Her most recent engagements have included the BBC Proms, extensive European and USA tours of Handel, Verdi and Berlioz under Sir John Eliot Gardiner as well as performances at the Albert Hall with her own ensemble, Word and Music.
She performs regularly at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Philharmonie (Paris), La Scala (Italy), Philharmonie (Berlin), KKL (Lucern), Royal Festival Hall (London), Wigmore Hall (London), and Palau de la Musica (Barcelona).
Davina is passionate about playing chamber music and performs regularly with fellow members of the English Baroque Soloists. She also frequently travels to the United States for solo and chamber recitals.
Davina plays on a 1659 Francesco Ruggieri violin and is grateful to Ingles and Hayday, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, The Stradivari Trust and the Vec Acorn Trust for their generous support.
“I was immediately struck by Davina’s innate musicianship, her violinistic prowess, her passionate engagement and seriousness of purpose, and her rare but surefooted sense of style. Added to that was the most priceless attribute of all - a manifest willingness to learn, to imbibe and to assimilate [She plays] with authority, charm and conviction - and a beguiling beauty of tone.” — Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE
Mary Bevan
Praised by Opera for her “dramatic wit and vocal control”, British soprano Mary Bevan is internationally renowned in baroque, classical and contemporary repertoire, and appears regularly with leading conductors, orchestras and ensembles around the world. She is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music and was awarded a MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2019.
Bevan’s engagements for the 2022/23 season include a return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Morgana in a new Richard Jones production of Alcina that will be conducted by Christian Curnyn, LIGHT: Bach Dances with the Hofesh Shechter Company at the Philharmonie de Paris, a return to the Garsington Opera and her debut at La Fenice, Venice as Eurydice in Gluck Orfeo and Eurydice.
Last season, Bevan’s many concert appearances included Haydn The Creation at the Barbican Hall with the Academy of Ancient Music, Belinda and First Witch Dido & Aeneas with the Early Opera Company at St John’s Smith Square, a European tour of Handel Messiah with the Kammerorchester Basel, Handel Theresienmesse with the Handel and Haydn Society and Bach Mass in B minor with the Philhamonia Baroque Orchestra. Further highlights include recitals at Wigmore Hall and the Lammermuir, Osafestivalen and Oxford Lieder festivals. During the 2020/21 season she returned to Royal Danish Opera for her role debut as Marzelline Fidelio and for the production LIGHT: Bach Dances with director John Fuljames and conductor Lars Ulrik Mortensen and made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in David Alden’s production of Ariodante as Dalinda; in concert she sang the world premiere of Sir James MacMillan Christmas Oratorio at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and A.Bliss Rout with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Opera highlights of previous seasons include Rose Maurrant in Weill’s Street Scene for Opera de Monte Carlo and Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld for English National Opera, her debut with the Danish Opera debut as Bellezza in Il Trionfo del tempo e del desinganno, the title role in Turnage’s new opera Coraline for the Royal Opera at the Barbican, her return to the English National Opera as Zerlina Don Giovanni, and her debut as Merab Saul for the Adelaide Festival. For the Royal Opera House she created the role of Lila in David Bruce The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, performed the title role in Rossi’s Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, and sang Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro on the main stage. In concert she performed with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO in the world premiere of Roxanna Panufnik’s Faithful Journey, Mary in Sally Beamish The Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Bach Christmas Oratorio on tour in Australia with the Choir of London and Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music. With The English Concert, she appeared in their tour of Asia (Harry Bicket) and made her Carnegie Hall debut as Dalinda in Ariodante, and she has also performed with the BBC Concert (BBC Proms) and BBC Symphony orchestras.
Bevan’s discography includes her art song album Voyages with pianist Joseph Middleton and Handel's Queens with London Early Opera, both released by Signum Records, Mendelssohn songs for Champs Hill Records, Handel: The Triumph of Time and Truth and Handel: Ode for St Cecilia’s Day with Ludus Baroque, and Vaughan Williams Symphony No.3 and Schubert Rosamunde with the BBC Philharmonic. In autumn 2019 Signum released her second disc with Joseph Middleton including Lieder by Schubert, Haydn and Wolf.
