The Artist
Ian Bostridge CBE’s extraordinary international career has taken him to the foremost concert halls, orchestras and
opera houses in the world. Synonymous with the works of Schubert and Britten, his recital career has taken him to
the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Mu nich, Vienna, Aldeburgh and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade Festivals and to the main
stages of Carnegie Hall, the Bayerische Staatsoper, La Monnaie and Teatro alla Scala. In opera, Ian has received
particular praise for his interpretation of Aschenbach Death in Venice at the Deutsche Oper & Peter Quint The Turn
of the Screw for Teatro alla Scala. His recordings have won all the major international record prizes and been
nominated for 15 Grammys.
Highlights of the 2 6/27 season include Britten Serenade for Tenor, Ho rn and Strings with the Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra , Fort Worth Sympho ny Orchestra ,Zurich Kammerorchester and at the Seoul International Music Festival ;
War Requiem with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra; St Nicolas with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra ;
and the roles of General S ir Philip Wingrave and Narrator Owen Wingrave for Opera de Te nerife. Recital plans
include tours of Japan and the US with pianist Julius Drake, and performances with chamber ensem bles including
Fre twork and the Oberon Trio.
Ian has held artistic residencies at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, the Barbican, the
Luxembourg Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall and Hamburg Laeiszhalle. Ian has also participated in a Carte -Blanche
series with Thomas Quasthoff at th e Amsterdam Concertgebouw and a Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, as well
as the inaugural Artistic Residency with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Ian has worked with the Berliner
Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago, Boston, London and BBC Symphony orchestras, the London, New
York, Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, the Rotterdam Philharmonisch Orkest, Accademia di Santa Cecilia and
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Sir A ntonio
Pappano, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and Donald Runnicles.
His operatic appearances have included Aschenbach Death in Venice for the Deutsche Oper, Peter Quint The Turn
of the Screw for the Teatro alla Scala, Handel’s Jephtha for Opéra National de Paris, Renaud Armide for Opéra
Comique, Nerone L'Incoronazione di Poppea , Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress and Male Chorus The Rape of
Lucretia for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni for the Wiener Staatsoper, Tamino Die
Zauberflöte , Aschenbach Death in Venice and Jupiter Semele for the English National Opera, Peter Quint The Turn
of the Screw , Don Ottavio Don Giovanni and Caliban The Tempest for the Royal Opera House, Lysander A
Midsummer Night's Dream for Opera Australia and at the Edinburgh Festival, and Madwoman Curlew River in the
Netia Jones’s staging for the London Barbican which was also seen in New York and on the west coast of America.
A prolific recording artist, Ian’s Pentatone recording of Schubert’s Winterreise with Thomas Adès won the Vocal
Recording of the Year 2020 in the International Classical Music Awards. Other recordings include Schubert’s Die
schöne Müllerin with Graham Johnson (Gramophone Award 1996), Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress with Sir
John Eliot Gardiner (Grammy Award, 1999), and Belmonte Die Entführung aus dem Serail with William Christie.
Under his exclusive contract with Warner Classics, recordings included Schube rt and Schumann Lieder
(Gramophone Award 1998), The English Songbook and Henze Lieder with Julius Drake, Britten’s Our Hunting
Fathers with Daniel Harding, Mozart’s Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras, Janáček’s The Diary of One who
Disappeared with Thomas Adès, Schubert with Leif Ove Andsnes, Mitsuko Uchida and Sir Antonio Pappano, Noel
Coward with Jeffrey Tate, Britten Orchestral cycles with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, Wolf with
Pappano, Bach cantatas with Fabio Biondi, Handel arias with Harry Bicket, Britten Canticles and both Britten’s The
Turn of the Screw (Gramophone Award, 2003) and Billy Budd (Grammy Award, 2010), Adès’s The Tempest
(Gramophone Award 2010) and Monteverdi’s Orfeo . Recent recordings include Schumann Songs, Respighi Songs
and Die schöne Mullerin with Saskia Giorgini for Pentatone, Tormento d’Amore , Shakespeare songs (Grammy
Award, 2017) and Requiem: The Pity of War with Pappano for Warner Classics, as well as Berlioz’s Les Nuits d'Eté ,
Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Debus sy’s Le Livre de Baudelaire arr. John Adams with Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle
Symphony Orchestra.
His book Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession (The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, 2016) was
published by Faber and Faber in the UK and Knopf in the USA in 2014. In the 20/21 season Ian gave a lecture series
for the University of Chicago and took up the position of Visiting Professor at the Munich Hochschule für Musik und
Theater. Ian’s most recent book, Song and Self, was published by Faber and Faber in 2023. He delivered the 2025
Anthony Hecht Lectures in the Humanities at Bard College, New York.
Ian was a fellow in history at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1992 -5) and in 2001 was elected an honorary fellow of
the college. In 2003 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the University of St Andrews and in 2010 he was
made an honorary fellow of St John's College Oxford. He was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honours. In 2014
he was Humanitas Professor of Classical Music at the University of Oxford.
