Ian Bostridge CBE (born 25 December 1964) is an acclaimed English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.[1]
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Born in London, Bostridge studied at the private schools, Dulwich College and Westminster School then attended the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where he read modern history and received an M.Phil in the history and philosophy of science. He received his D.Phil from Oxford in 1990, on the significance of witchcraft in English public life from 1650 to 1750, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, publishing an Oxford Historical Monograph, "Witchcraft and its Transformations 1650 to 1750" in 1997, before embarking on a career as a singer. In 1991 he won National Federation of Music Societies Award and from 1992 received support from the Young Concert Artists' Trust.
Bostridge made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1993; his Purcell Room debut (an acclaimed Winterreise) and his Aldeburgh Festival debut in 1994; in 1995 he gave his first solo recital in the Wigmore Hall (winning the Royal Philharmonic Society's Debut Award); in 1996 he gave recitals in Lyon, Cologne, London and at the Aldeburgh, Cheltenham and Edinburgh Festivals, and in 1997 at the Alte Oper, Frankfurt.
On the concert platform he has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis and Mstislav Rostropovich, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras, and the City of Birmingham Symphony under Sir Simon Rattle.
His first recording for Hyperion Records was a Britten song recital, The Red Cockatoo with Graham Johnson, and his subsequent recording of Die schöne Müllerin in Hyperion's Schubert Edition won the Gramophone's Solo Vocal Award for 1996.
Bostridge made his operatic debut in 1994, aged 29, as Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Australian Opera at the Edinburgh Festival. In 1996 made his acclaimed debut with the English National Opera, singing his first Tamino (The Magic Flute). In 1997 he sang Quint in Deborah Warner's new production of The Turn of the Screw under Sir Colin Davis for the Royal Opera. He has recorded Flute (Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream) with Sir Colin Davis for Philips Classics; Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) with William Christie for Erato, and Tom Rakewell (The Rake's Progress) under John Eliot Gardiner for Deutsche Grammophon. In 2007 he appeared at the ENO in the role of Aschenbach in Britten's {Death in Venice}.
In 1997 he made a film of Schubert's Winterreise for Channel 4 directed by David Alden; he has been the subject of a South Bank Show profile documentary on ITV and presented a BBC4 film on Leoš Janáček. He has written on music for The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, Opernwelt, BBC Music Magazine, Opera Now and the The Independent.
Later engagements included recitals in Paris, Stockholm, Lisbon, Brussels, Amsterdam and the Vienna Konzerthaus. In North America he appeared in recitals in New York City at the Frick Collection in 1998 and Alice Tully Hall in 1999 and made his Carnegie Hall debut under Sir Neville Marriner. Also in 1998 he sang Vasek in a new production of The Bartered Bride under Bernard Haitink for the Royal Opera and made his debut at the Munich Festival as Nerone (L'incoronazione di Poppea) and in recital (Winterreise at the Cuvillés Theatre). In 1999 he made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Roger Norrington.
In 2004, Ian Bostridge was made CBE for his services to music. His brother is the Whitbread-shortlisted biographer and critic Mark Bostridge, whose book "Florence Nightingale: the woman and her legend" was published in the UK in 2008. They are great-grandchildren of John "Tiny" Joyce, a cousin of James Joyce and famous goalkeeper who played for Tottenham Hotspur before the First World War.[1].
Ian Bostridge is now the music columnist for Standpoint magazine, the new monthly publication launched "to celebrate Western civilisation". He also serves on the magazine's advisory board.
Ian Bostridge is married to the writer and literary critic, Dr Lucasta Miller, author of the classic study published in 2001, "The Brontë Myth". They have a son and a daughter.