Julius Drake
Encyclopedia
Julius Drake is an English pianist
who works as a song recital accompanist and chamber musician.
and the Royal College of Music
; he made his professional debut at the Purcell Room
in 1981 and developed a special affinity for the music of Robert Schumann
. Drake is now a professor at the Royal Academy of Music
and a visiting professor at the Royal Northern College of Music
; he lives in London with his wife and two children and, between performing, recording and teaching, is actively involved in the Jean Meikle Music Trust, a charity set up in commemoration of his mother.
Drake was director of the Perth International Chamber Music Festival in Australia from 2000–2003 and was musical director of Deborah Warner
’s staging of Janáček
’s Diary of One Who Vanished, touring to Munich, London, Dublin, Amsterdam and New York; he was artistic director of Leeds Lieder 2009 and directs the Machynlleth Festival
in Wales from 2009 - 2011. He has devised song programmes for the Wigmore Hall
, London, the BBC
, the Concertgebouw
, Amsterdam, and the historic Middle Temple Hall in London with such recitalists as Thomas Allen, Olaf Bär
, Ian Bostridge
, Alice Coote
, Angelika Kirchschlager
, Sergei Leiferkus
, Felicity Lott
, Katarina Karneus, Christopher Maltman, Mark Padmore
, Amanda Roocroft, and Willard White
; he also has a longstanding partnership with oboist Nicholas Daniel
.
Drake's numerous recordings include playing on screen in David Alden
's 1997 film of Schubert
's Winterreise for Channel 4
with Ian Bostridge
.
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
who works as a song recital accompanist and chamber musician.
Biography
Drake was educated at the Purcell SchoolPurcell School
The Purcell School is a specialist music school for children, located in the town of Bushey, south Hertfordshire, England, and is the oldest specialist music school in the UK. The school was awarded the UNESCO Mozart Medal in 2003, which was received on behalf of the school by Prince Charles, who...
and the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
; he made his professional debut at the Purcell Room
Purcell Room
The Purcell Room is a concert and performance venue which forms part of the Southbank Centre, one of central London's leading cultural complexes. It is named after the 17th century English composer Henry Purcell and has 370 seats....
in 1981 and developed a special affinity for the music of Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
. Drake is now a professor at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
and a visiting professor at the Royal Northern College of Music
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
; he lives in London with his wife and two children and, between performing, recording and teaching, is actively involved in the Jean Meikle Music Trust, a charity set up in commemoration of his mother.
Drake was director of the Perth International Chamber Music Festival in Australia from 2000–2003 and was musical director of Deborah Warner
Deborah Warner
Deborah Warner CBE is a British director of theatre and opera known for her interpretations of the works of Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Georg Büchner, and Henrik Ibsen, and for her long-term working relationship with the Irish actress Fiona Shaw.-Early years:Warner was born in Oxfordshire,...
’s staging of Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
’s Diary of One Who Vanished, touring to Munich, London, Dublin, Amsterdam and New York; he was artistic director of Leeds Lieder 2009 and directs the Machynlleth Festival
Machynlleth Festival
The Machynlleth Festival takes place in the Auditorium of The Tabernacle, Machynlleth, in late August every year. During the week eminent performers take part in events ranging from recitals for children to jazz...
in Wales from 2009 - 2011. He has devised song programmes for the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
, London, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, the Concertgebouw
Concertgebouw
The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" literally translates into English as "concert building"...
, Amsterdam, and the historic Middle Temple Hall in London with such recitalists as Thomas Allen, Olaf Bär
Olaf Bär
Olaf Bär is a German operatic baritone.- Life :Bär received his musical training in his home city of Dresden, studying at the city's Hochschule für Musik. His career has concentrated on lieder and on the lyric baritone roles of the operatic repertoire...
, Ian Bostridge
Ian Bostridge
Ian Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
, Alice Coote
Alice Coote
Alice Coote is a British lyric mezzo-soprano.The daughter of the painter Mark Coote, she was educated at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London , the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the National Opera Studio...
, Angelika Kirchschlager
Angelika Kirchschlager
Angelika Kirchschlager is an Austrian mezzo-soprano opera and lieder singer.-Career:Kirchschlager began her musical training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where she studied percussion and piano. In 1984, she went to the Vienna Music Academy, where she studied with Gerhard Kahry and Walter Berry...
, Sergei Leiferkus
Sergei Leiferkus
Sergei Leiferkus is an operatic baritone from Russia, known for his dramatic technique and powerful voice particularly in Russian and Italian language repertoire. He is most notable for his roles as Scarpia in Tosca, Iago in Otello, Grand-prétre de Dagon in Samson et Dalila and Simon Boccanegra...
, Felicity Lott
Felicity Lott
Dame Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott, DBE, FRCM is an English soprano.-Education:From her earliest years she was musical, having started studying piano at age 5. She also played violin and began singing lessons at 12. She is an alumna of Royal Holloway, University of London, obtaining a BA in French and...
, Katarina Karneus, Christopher Maltman, Mark Padmore
Mark Padmore
Mark Padmore is a British tenor appearing in concerts, recitals, and opera.Born in London 8 March 1961, and raised in Canterbury, Kent in England. Padmore studied clarinet and piano prior to his gaining a choral scholarship to King's College, Cambridge...
, Amanda Roocroft, and Willard White
Willard White
Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE is a Jamaican-born British bass-baritone.-Early life:He was born into a poor but supportive Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole...
; he also has a longstanding partnership with oboist Nicholas Daniel
Nicholas Daniel
Nicholas Daniel is a British oboist and conductor. He won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition at eighteen and has since become one of the United Kingdom's most distinguished soloists...
.
Drake's numerous recordings include playing on screen in David Alden
David Alden (director)
David Alden is a prolific theater and film director known for his post-modernist settings of opera. He is the twin brother of Christopher Alden, also an opera director in the revisionist mold...
's 1997 film of Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Winterreise for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
with Ian Bostridge
Ian Bostridge
Ian Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
.
Select discography
- Tchaikovsky: Romances with Christianne Stotijn (Onyx, 2009)
- Ravel: Songs with Gerald FinleyGerald Finley-Career:He was born in Montreal and received his musical education in St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Ottawa, the University of Ottawa, King's College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London, England...
(Hyperion, 2009) - Lorraine Hunt LiebersonLorraine Hunt LiebersonLorraine Hunt Lieberson was an American mezzo-soprano, known for the dramatic power of her vocal artistry as well as her commitment to performing infrequently-heard Baroque era and contemporary works...
live at Wigmore Hall (2008) - Gerald FinleyGerald Finley-Career:He was born in Montreal and received his musical education in St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Ottawa, the University of Ottawa, King's College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London, England...
live at Wigmore Hall (2008) - Schumann: Dichterliebe and other Heine settings (Hyperion, 2008)
- Grieg: Songs with Katarina Karneus (Hyperion, 2008)
- Ives: Songs (vol.11), Romanzo di Central Park with Gerald FinleyGerald Finley-Career:He was born in Montreal and received his musical education in St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Ottawa, the University of Ottawa, King's College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London, England...
(Hyperion, 2008) - Barber: Songs with Gerald FinleyGerald Finley-Career:He was born in Montreal and received his musical education in St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Ottawa, the University of Ottawa, King's College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London, England...
(Hyperion, 2007) - Christopher Maltman live at Wigmore Hall (2007)
- Pasión! with Joyce diDonatoJoyce DiDonatoJoyce DiDonato is an award-winning American operatic mezzo-soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Handel, Mozart, and Rossini...
(Eloquentia, 2007) - Gustav Mahler: Urlicht (lieder) with Christianne Stotijn (Onyx, 2006)
- Songs of Venice with Joyce diDonato (Wigmore Hall, 2006)
- Voyage à Paris with Lynne DawsonLynne DawsonLynne Dawson is an English soprano. She came to great prominence through her performance as a soloist in Libera me from Verdi’s Requiem with the BBC Singers at Princess Diana’s funeral in September 1997...
(Berlin Classics, 2005) - Schubert: 25 Lieder with Ian BostridgeIan BostridgeIan Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
(EMI Classics, 2005) - French Song with Ian BostridgeIan BostridgeIan Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
(EMI Classics, 2005) - Alice CooteAlice CooteAlice Coote is a British lyric mezzo-soprano.The daughter of the painter Mark Coote, she was educated at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London , the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the National Opera Studio...
- songs (EMI Classics, 2003) - Shostakovich: Sonatas with Annette Batorldi (Naxos, 2003)
- Britten : Canticles & Folksongs with Ian BostridgeIan BostridgeIan Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
(Virgin Classics, 2002) - The English Songbook with Ian BostridgeIan BostridgeIan Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
(EMI Classics, 2002) - Sibelius: Songs with Katarina Karneus (Hyperion, 2002)
- Ivor GurneyIvor GurneyIvor Bertie Gurney was an English composer and poet.-Life:Born at 3 Queen Street, Gloucester in 1890, the second of four children of David Gurney, a tailor, and his wife Florence, a seamstress, Gurney showed musical ability early...
: Seaven Meadows with Paul AgnewPaul AgnewPaul Agnew is a Scottish operatic tenor.Agnew read music as a Choral Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the Consort of Musicke, the Tallis Scholars, the Sixteen and the Gothic Voices, before embarking on a solo career in the early 1990s.Closely associated with William...
(Hyperion, 2001) - Schubert: Lieder volume II with Ian BostridgeIan BostridgeIan Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
(EMI Classics, 2001) - Henze: Songs with Ian BostridgeIan BostridgeIan Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
(EMI Classics, 2001) - Schumann: Lieder with Sophie Daneman (EMI Classics, 2001)
- Schumann: Liederkreis & Dichterliebe etc. with Ian BostridgeIan BostridgeIan Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
(EMI Classics, 1998)