Christine Rice, John Findon, Roderick Williams, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Nicholas Collon
Biographie Christine Rice, John Findon, Roderick Williams, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Nicholas Collon
Christine Rice
is one of the leading British mezzo sopranos of her generation, and was appointed MBE in the 2023 New Year's Honours for services to opera.
Highlights in her 2024/25 season include Muse Les contes d'Hoffmann for the Royal Opera and Phaedra in Deborah Warner's staging of Britten's cantata in its Linbury Theatre, La Zia Principessa Suor Angelica for the English National Opera and Ježibaba Rusalka for the Bayerische Staatsoper.
Christine Rice's operatic appearances have also taken her to The Metropolitan Opera, New York; the Opéra national de Paris; the Deutsche Oper, Berlin; Madrid's Teatro Real; the Opernhaus Zürich and the Glyndebourne and Salzburg Festivals.
Her wide ranging repertoire includes the roles of Brangäne Tristan und Isolde, Fricka and Erda Das Rheingold, Judith Duke Bluebeard's Castle, the title role in Carmen, Concepcion L'heure espagnole, Marguerite La damnation de Faust, Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel, the title roles in Gloriana and The Rape of Lucretia, Dorabella Così fan tutte and Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Penelope Il Ritorno d'Ulisse and Irene Theodora, Ruggiero Alcina and the title role in Ariodante.
She created the roles of Miranda and Blanca in the world premieres of Thomas Adès' The Tempest and The Exterminating Angel, and Ariadne in Birtwistle's The Minotaur.
Christine also has a very busy concert career, appearing throughout the UK, Europe, North America and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International and Aldeburgh festivals working with conductors that include Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner, Fabio Luisi, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
John Findon
British tenor, John Findon studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Opera Course. He was a Harewood Artist at English National Opera from 2022 – 2024 and a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne Festival in 2017.
This 2024/25 season, John will sing the title role of Peter Grimes in Barbora Horáková's new production at Dutch National Opera and cover the role in Deborah Warner’s production at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. He will then make two house and role debuts; Bacchus Ariadne auf Naxos at Opéra de Rouen and Narraboth Salome at Teatro di San Carlo. In the Summer, John will give a role debut as Andrei Mazeppa at Grange Park Opera and make concert debuts at the BBC Proms and with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Recent highlights include his role debuts as Don Jose Carmen at Glyndebourne Festival and title role of Peter Grimes at English National Opera. He made his house debut at Bayerische Staatsoper for 1st Armoured man and 2nd Priest Die Zauberflöte, a role debut as Steva Jenůfa at English National Opera, revived the role of Luke The Handmaid’s Tale at English National Opera, before spending the summer at Glyndebourne Festival for 1st Armed Man/2nd Priest Die Zauberflöte and cover Melot Tristan und Isolde.
On the concert platform, John recently made debuts with the Helsinki Radio Symphony for The Dream of Gerontius conducted by Nicholas Collon, BBC Symphony Orchestra for Luigi Nono’s Canti di vita e d’amore with conductor Martyn Brabbins, with Ulster Orchestra for Dvořák’s Stabat mater conducted by Jac van Steen and made a studio recording of Pamela Harrison’s The Dark Forest with the BBC Philharmonic.
Roderick Williams
is one of the UK’s most sought-after baritones and is constantly in demand on the concert platform and in recital, encompassing repertoire from the baroque to world premieres.
Opera engagements have included major roles at leading opera houses worldwide including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Dallas Opera, the Bregenz Festival and Oper Köln. He has been involved in many world premieres including Alexander Knaifel’s Alice in Wonderland, several operas by Michel van der Aa, the title role in Robert Saxton’s The Wandering Jew, and the UK premiere of Sally Beamish’s Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment.
Notable operatic engagements have included Oronte in Charpentier’s Medée, Toby Kramer in van der Aa’s Sunken Garden, Don Alfonso / Cosi fan Tutte and Sharpless / Madam Butterfly and baritone in a staging of Britten’s War Requiem for English National Opera, the title role in Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera, the title role in Billy Budd for Opera North, van der Aa’s After Life at Melbourne State Theatre and at Opera de Lyon, and van de Aa’s Upload for Dutch National Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Oper Köln and at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. He has also appeared as Papageno and as Ulisse / Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria for the Royal Opera House, Toby Kramer for Dallas Opera, and Christus / St John Passion in staged performances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, both under Sir Simon Rattle. In 2023 he sang Germont in La Traviata at the St Endellion Festival and recorded the role for a new film by Opera Glassworks which was released on Sky Arts in January 2025. Future engagements include Yeletsky / Pique Dame for Garsington Opera.
Recent and future concert engagements include performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen, The King’s Consort, Le Concert Spirituel, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, RIAS Kammerchor, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bayerische Rundfunk, San Francisco Symphony, Music of the Baroque Chicago, New York Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Sao Paulo Symphony, Bach Collegium Japan, and Singapore Symphony. He is a regular performer at the BBC Proms, featuring as the soloist in the Last Night in 2014, and most recently appearing in the St Matthew Passion in 2021, and the world premiere of Matthew Kaner’s ‘Pearl’ in 2022.
Other recent engagements included tours of Japan with the BBC SO, of Europe with the RIAS Kammerchor, and of North America with Bach Collegium Japan.
He is an accomplished recital artist who can be heard regularly at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, LSO St Luke’s, the Perth Concert Hall, Ludlow Song Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Howard Assembly Room in Leeds, Bath International Festival, Three Choirs Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, the Concertgebouw and the Musikverein. In 2019 he performed all three Schubert cycles at Wigmore Hall.
His recital programmes often feature repertoire by British composers, including many new works. He appears frequently on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 as both performer and presenter.
His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for Chandos, and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos. Other recent recordings include an award-winning disc of French song with Roger Vignoles for Champs Hill Records, the three Schubert Cycles with Iain Burnside for Chandos, and recordings of Stanford and Somervell with Susie Allan for Somm.
He has also recorded Schubert’s Winter Journey in a new translation by Jeremy Samms with Christopher Glynn for Signum. He sang Captain Balstrode / Peter Grimes with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos (Gramophone Recording of the Year 2021). He has also recorded his own arrangement of Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad and other English repertoire with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder, also for Chandos.
He is an established composer and has recently taken up the role of Composer in Association of the BBC Singers. Commissions include a major work, World without End, for the RIAS Kammerchor and BBC Singers, as well as a commission to celebrate the centenary of the RAF. He was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder + in April 2016 and Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 2020-2022. Currently he is ‘singer-in-residence’ for Music in the Round in Sheffield, presenting concerts and leading on dynamic and innovative learning and participation projects that introduce amateur singers, young and old, to performing classical song repertoire. In 2023 he was Artistic Director of the St Endellion Summer Festival, and Artist in Residence at the Aldeburgh Festival.
In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the Year award, and in June 2017 was awarded an OBE for services to music. He also performed at the Coronation of King Charles III in 2023.
