Jonathan Brown

Cambridge Handel Opera Company (CHOC) is fortunate to work with some fantastic musicians and singers. You can find out a little bit more about some of them here.

Jonathan Brown was born in Toronto and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Western Ontario. After moving to England he continued his studies at the University of Cambridge as well as the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh with Sir Thomas Allen and Anthony Rolfe Johnson.

Operatic roles include Marcello (La Boheme, Royal Albert Hall), Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore), Count Almaviva, Yamadori (Madam Butterfly), Giove (La Calisto), Orestes (Giasone), Garibaldo (Rodelinda), Ariodate (Xerxes), Silvio (I Pagliacci), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Shepherd (Venus and Adonis) and Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas). He performed the role of Trojan (Idomeneo) for
Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic in the Salzburg Easter Festival. He has performed Orfeo (Pastore) at Lille Opera, Le Chatêlet, Paris and Opera du Rhin with Emmanuelle Haim. Last year he created the role of Leon in a new production of Tom Smail’s opera Blue Electric in London.

He made his debut with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Holland as the baritone soloist in a concert of Bach cantatas and thereafter was a regular soloist with performances in Zurich, Brussels and Paris. These performances formed part of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage and the subsequent CD release of all the cantatas on the Soli Deo Gloria label.

He features as a soloist in Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia and Dido and Aeneas for Harmonia Mundi. He has recorded the baritone solos in the Fauré Requiem with the London Festival Orchestra for BMG and appears in the role of the Forester in Sullivan’s The Golden Legend for Hyperion. Recent recordings have included world premieres of Wesley’s cantata Confitebor tibi (Priory) and Eccles’ Semele
(AAM).