Ian Bostridge

Biography

Ian Bostridge CBE's extraordinary international career has taken him to the foremost concert halls, orchestras and opera houses in the world. Synonymous with the works of Schubert and Britten, his recital career has taken him to the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Aldeburgh, and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade festivals and to the main stages of Carnegie Hall, the Bayerische Staatsoper, La Monnaie and Teatro alla Scala. In opera, Ian has received particular praise for his interpretation of Aschenbach (Death in Venice) at the Deutsche Oper and Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw) for Teatro alla Scala. His recordings have won all the major international record prizes and have been nominated for 15 Grammys®.

Highlights of the 25/26 season include Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw for Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; staged performances of Schubert Winterreise directed by Deborah Warner at the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet, Paris; Britten War Requiem with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stéphane Denève; staged performances of Bach St Matthew Passion directed by Romeo Castellucci at the Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Kent Nagano; and Britten Nocturne and Serenade with the Munich Rundfunkorchester. He will appear in recital with chamber ensembles including the Oberon Trio, Fretwork and Europa Galante.

Ian has held artistic residencies at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, the Barbican, the Luxembourg Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall and Hamburg Laeiszhalle. Ian has also participated in a Carte-Blanche series with Thomas Quasthoff at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, a Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, and the inaugural Artistic Residency with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Ian has worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago, Boston, London and BBC Symphony orchestras, the London, New York, Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, the Rotterdam Philharmonisch Orkest, Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and Donald Runnicles.

A prolific recording artist, Ian’s recent Pentatone recording of Schubert’s Winterreise with Thomas Adès won the Vocal Recording of the Year 2020 in the International Classical Music Awards. Other recordings include Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with Graham Johnson (Gramophone Award 1996), Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress with Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Grammy Award, 1999), and Belmonte Die Entführung aus dem Serail with William Christie.

An internationally celebrated author and academic, Ian Bostridge’s Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession was published by Faber and Faber in the UK and Knopf in the USA in 2014, and his most recent book Song and Self was published in 2023. He was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honours.


Photo Credit: Marco Borggreve