PETER BRATHWAITEBaritone
Born in Manchester, baritone Peter Brathwaite graduated in 2010 from the Royal College of Music's International Opera School having completed the Artist Diploma in Opera and the PGDip at the College. Previous to this he gained a First Class Honours Degree in Philosophy and Fine Art from the University of Newcastle. He is the winner of the Samuel Coleridge Taylor Award presented by Grace Bumbry at the 2009 Voice of Black Opera Competition, a Peter Moores Foundation Major Award holder, Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme Alumna, Winston Churchill Fellow (presented by Her Majesty The Queen) and winner of the RCM Ted Moss and Bertha Taylor-Stach Lieder Prize. Peter was a member of the Operastudio Vlaanderen in Ghent for 2010/11 where he worked with Ann Murray, Graham Johnson and Sir Thomas Allen. His time at the Operastudio was generously supported by a further award from the Peter Moores Foundation and Stichting Robus. He is the recipient of a prestigious Independent Opera Fellowship and continues to study with Russell Smythe. Peter recently became a Resident Artist at the Nationale Reisopera in the Netherlands.
His operatic roles include Marcello/La Boheme for the Nationale Reisopera RAP, Jean in Philippe Boesmans' opera Julie in Belgium, Guglielmo/Cosi fan tutte at the Château de Panloy, La Rochelle, Germano in Rossini's La Scala di Seta for British Youth Opera and Tarquinius/Rape of Lucretia in excerpts performed at De Vlaamse Opera. Peter made his French operatic debut in 2008 at the Opéra National de Lyon as Nelson in Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu's acclaimed Porgy & Bess. He reprised the role last season both at the Opéra de Lyon and the Edinburgh International Festival. He has worked with director Joanna Turner at Opera North on the creation of a new opera based on Thomas Hardy's short story, 'The Withered Arm', was a soloist in Carmen Jones at the Royal Festival Hall with both the Philharmonia Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and sang Elder Son in Charpentier's Filius Prodigus at the Newcastle Early Music Festival. At the RCM International Opera School he appeared as Papageno/Die Zauberflöte, Nardo/La Finta Giardiniera and Demetrius/A Midsummer Night's Dream. After completing the opera course he joined Glyndebourne Festival Opera as a chorus member in Billy Budd, conducted by Sir Mark Elder.
Peter performs regularly on the concert platform in venues throughout the UK and abroad. His repertoire includes Orff's Carmina Burana, Mozart's Requiem, Haydn's Nelson Mass and Gounod's St Cecelia Mass amongst others. Recent engagements include Bach's St Matthew Passion (Pilatus and arias) with the Varbergs Motettkör and the Trollhättans Motettkör in Sweden where he has also performed Bach Cantata 82 Ich habe Genug, Stainer's Crucifixion, Christus in Bach's St John Passion and Handel's Messiah in Trollhätten with players from the Gothenburg Opera Orchestra. Other highlights include excerpts from Purcell's King Arthur for the London Handel Festival conducted by Adrian Butterfield and gala performances with the Jeugd en Muziek Orkest conducted by Ivo Venkov at De Singel in Antwerp and the Cultuurcentrum, Bruges.
A keen recitalist he has performed at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh; the Austrian Cultural Forum; Bloomsbury International Concert Series and was featured on BBC Radio 3's Performance on 3. Peter has appeared in recital with Graham Johnson, and alongside his mentor Sarah Walker and Yvonne Kenny at the home of Vernon and Hazel Ellis as part of the Chelsea Schubert Festival. He also appeared in the Wigmore Hall Spring 2010 Series, singing songs by Brahms and Schubert with pianist Simon Lepper.
Engagements in 2011/12 include Customs Officer La Bohème for Glyndebourne on Tour, Malatesta in Don Pasquale at the Château de Panloy, France, his Bridgewater Hall solo recital debut - 'English Song through the Ages' with pianist James Baillieu and a return to Opéra de Lyon where he will work with Kazushi Ono.
