Marcus Farnswoth | Baritone
A former Winner of the Wigmore Hall / Kohn Foundation International Song Competition, recent highlights of Marcus Farnsworth’s career include The Traveller in Deborah Warner’s staging of Curlew River at Aldeburgh Festival, a production seen on BBC TV; Clive Green in Jonathan Dove’s Uprising with Royal Scottish National Opera; the premiere of Colin Matthews’ A Visit to Friends, also at Aldeburgh Festival; and Harlequin Ariadne auf Naxos for his debut with Garsington Opera at Wormsley.
He works regularly in recital with Libby Burgess and has appeared many times at Wigmore Hall including performing Britten’s Canticles with Julius Drake, and his recital engagements further include a UK tour of Schubert’s Winterreise with James Baillieu; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and La Monnaie with Julius Drake; Leeds Lieder with Graham Johnson; Snape Maltings with Malcolm Martineau; and the Fundacion Juan March, Madrid, with Sholto Kynoch.
For English National Opera, he has sung English Clerk Death in Venice, Noye Noyes Fludde, Guglielmo Così fan tutte, Bill Bobstay HMS Pinafore and Strephon Iolanthe; whilst with London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop he has appeared in Candide. Engagements elsewhere have included Hubbard in John Adams’ Doctor Atomic with BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer; Lance Corporal Lewis in Iain Bell’s In Parenthesis for Welsh National Opera; Maximilian Candide and Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Bergen National Opera; Ned Keene Peter Grimes with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner; HK Gruber’s Frankenstein with Aurora Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon; Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at BBC Proms; Guglielmo for Longborough Festival Opera; Eddy Greek for Boston Lyric Opera and Music Theatre Wales; and Street Scene at Teatro Real, Madrid.
Current engagements include Aeneas Dido and Aeneas for Gabrieli Roar, a return to English National Opera for the revival of HMS Pinafore; J. S. Bach’s B Minor Mass with Arcangelo and St John Passion with RIAS Kammerchor; Tansy Davies’ The Passion of Mary Magdalen and Handel’s Messiah with Dunedin Consort; Messiah with The King’s Consort; Stuart MacRae’s Parable with Hebrides Ensemble at London’s Wigmore Hall; Carmina Burana for Raymond Gubbay Live at London’s Southbank Centre; and European tours of King Arthur with Gabrieli Consort and The Fairy Queen with Vox Luminis. He also joins New Paths Music to perform Howard Skempton’s Rime of the Ancient Marriner and Richard Strauss’ Notturno.
Marcus Farnsworth is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Southwell Music Festival.