Joseph Middleton (born 10 January 1981) is a British

classical pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and

lied In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangea ...

accompanist Accompaniment is the part (music), musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmony (music), harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in di ...

Biography

Middleton was born in

Cirencester Cirencester ( , ; see #Pronunciation, below for more variations) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the List of ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

. At school he played piano, violin, flute and organ. He read music at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

where he graduated with the concerto and conducting awards, a first class

BMus A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. The degree may be awarded for performance, music ed ...

and

MPhil A Master of Philosophy (MPhil or PhM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. The name of the degree is most often abbreviated MPhil (or, at times, as PhM in other countries). MPhil are awarded to postgraduate students after completing at least ...

, and went on to study on an

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

Entrance Scholarship at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

. At the academy he studied with

Malcolm Martineau Malcolm Martineau, OBE (born 3 February 1960) is a Scottish pianist who is particularly noted as an accompanist. Life Martineau was born to the pianist Hester Dickson Martineau and Canon George Martineau in 1960. He was an only child but he had ...

and

Michael Dussek Michael Dussek (born February 24, 1958) is an English pianist specialising in chamber music and song accompaniment. Education Dussek was educated at St John's College School, Cambridge and Radley College, where his piano teacher was Hugo Langri ...

and won all the academy's piano accompaniment awards, in addition to those at the

Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

International Song Competition,

Kathleen Ferrier Kathleen Mary Ferrier (22 April 19128 October 1953) was an English contralto singer who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular ballads to the class ...

Awards,

Richard Tauber Richard Tauber (16 May 1891, Linz – 8 January 1948, London) was an Austrian lyric tenor and film actor. He performed the tenor role in numerous operas, including ''Don Giovanni'' by Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte. Early life Richard Tauber was b ...

Award,

Royal Over-Seas League The Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) is a not-for-profit institution founded in 1910, dedicated to promoting international friendship pursuant to its royal charter, an ethos which binds its global membership. ROSL has a Grade I listed clubhouse i ...

Competition and Geoffrey Parsons Award. On leaving the Royal Academy his first engagements were with Sir

Thomas Allen (baritone) Sir Thomas Boaz Allen (born 10 September 1944) is an English operatic baritone. He is widely admired in the opera world for his voice, the versatility of his repertoire, and his acting—leading many to regard him as one of the best lyric bari ...

who invited him to tour North America, perform at Wigmore Hall and join him for his 70th birthday tour of ''

Winterreise ''Winterreise'' (, ''Winter Journey'') is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert (Schubert Thematic Catalogue, D. 911, published as Opus number, Op. 89 in 1828), a setting of 24 Poetry, poems by German poet Wilhelm Müller. It is the ...

'', and with Dame

Felicity Lott Dame Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott, (born 8 May 1947) is an English soprano. Education Lott was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. From her earliest years she was musical, having started studying piano at age 5. She also played violin and bega ...

, with whom he recorded

Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

songs. Soon after, the mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly invited him to be a regular collaborator and they performed all over the world and recorded together. He held a Junior Fellowship at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

before returning to teach at the RAM and subsequently had the title

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

conferred upon him. He was the first accompanist to win the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

Young Artist Award and to be listed in the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' as one of London's Most Influential People. He is one of the most frequently heard pianists on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

and a regular collaborator on the

BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme (also known as the NGA scheme) was launched in 1999 by Adam Gatehouse as part of the BBC's commitment to young musical talent. Each autumn six or seven young artists at the beginning of careers on the ...

. He holds the post of musician-in-residence at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, and has been admitted as a Bye-Fellow and is director of Leeds Lieder. At Pembroke he programmes and plays for the Bliss International Concert Series which attracts the world's finest singers to the city. He founded and directs the Pembroke Lieder Scheme which has trained a generation of leading singers and pianists. Under his watch at Leeds Lieder the Festival has grown from a biennial event to an annual Festival of international standing complemented by an associated concert season and touring programme. It has been nominated for a RPS Award, commissions widely and won the J. M. Barrie Award for its educational work in Leeds schools. His predecessors as artistic directors at Leeds Lieder include Graham Johnson, Julius Drake, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles and Iain Burnside. Best known for accompanying singers and for his programming flair he has partnered with Sir

Thomas Allen Thomas Allen may refer to: Clergy *Thomas Allen (nonconformist) (1608–1673), Anglican/nonconformist priest in England and New England *Thomas Allen (dean of Chester) (died 1732) *Thomas Allen (scholar) (1681–1755), Anglican priest in England * ...

Louise Alder Louise Alder (born 25 November 1986) is a British lyric soprano. She won the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the 2017 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and the Young Singer award at the 2017 International Opera Awards. Her debu ...

, Mary Bevan,

Ian Bostridge Ian Charles Bostridge CBE (born 25 December 1964) is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera and lieder singer. Early life and education Bostridge was born in London, the son of Leslie Bostridge and Lillian (née Clark). ...

Allan Clayton Allan James Clayton (born 1981) is a British tenor. Clayton studied at the King's School, Worcester as a chorister at Worcester Cathedral, at St John's College, Cambridge as a choral scholar, and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was ...

, Dame Sarah Connolly,

Lucy Crowe Lucy Mary Elizabeth Crowe is an English soprano in opera and concert. She has performed at international opera houses and music festivals such as the Glyndebourne Festival and Rheingau Musik Festival. Career Born in Staffordshire, England, C ...

, Iestyn Davies, Fatma Said,

Wolfgang Holzmair Wolfgang Holzmair (born 1952 in Vöcklabruck) is an Austrian baritone. Holzmair studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He won 2nd prize in the baritone class of the 's-Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition in 1981, an ...

Christiane Karg Christiane Karg (born 6 August 1980) is a German operatic soprano. The award-winning singer became known for performing Mozart roles at the Salzburg Festival, and made an international career. Career Born in Feuchtwangen, Bavaria, Karg studied ...

Katarina Karnéus Katarina Esmé Marie Karnéus (born 26 November 1965) is a Swedish mezzo-soprano opera singer, winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, active on many of the opera world's major stages such as the Metropolitan Opera and the Par ...

Angelika Kirchschlager Angelika Kirchschlager (born 24 November 1965, Salzburg) 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 w ...

, Dame

Christopher Maltman Christopher Maltman (born 6 February 1970) is a British operatic baritone who has appeared internationally. He has sung many leading roles first at the Royal Opera House, the title role of Enescu's '' Œdipe'' at the Salzburg Festival, and Jochan ...

John Mark Ainsley John Mark Ainsley (born 9 July 1963) is an English lyric tenor. Known for his supple voice, Ainsley is particularly admired for his interpretations of baroque music and the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the course of his career, he has ...

Ann Murray Ann Murray (born 27 August 1949) is an Irish mezzo-soprano. Life and career Murray was born in Dublin. Having won a number of prizes at the Feis Ceoil, she studied singing at the College of Music (now the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, ...

DBE,

Mark Padmore Mark Padmore (born 8 March 1961) is a British tenor appearing in concerts, recitals, and opera. Early life He was born in London on 8 March 1961, and raised in Canterbury, Kent, England. Padmore studied clarinet and piano prior to his gainin ...

, Miah Persson,

Amanda Roocroft Amanda Jane Roocroft (born 9 February 1966) is an English operatic soprano, who in the course of her career has sung leading roles in the opera houses of Europe and North America. She is also a voice professor at London's Royal College of Music ...

, Kate Royal, Matthew Rose (bass),

Carolyn Sampson Carolyn Margaret Sampson (born 18 May 1974) is an English soprano in opera and concert. Specialising in historically informed performance, she has sung in Masaaki Suzuki's recording project of Bach cantatas and has appeared at the English Natio ...

, Nicky Spence and

Roderick Williams Roderick Gregory Coleman Williams OBE (born 1965) is a British baritone and composer. Biography Williams was born in North London to a Welsh father and a Jamaican mother. He attended Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford and Haberdashers' ...

. He has played in music centres across the world, including: London's

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

and

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

, New York's

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and Philanthropy, philanthropist whose donations assis ...

and

Park Avenue Armory The Park Avenue Armory, also known as the 7th Regiment Armory, is a historic armory for the U.S. Army National Guard at 643 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed in the Gothic Revival style ...

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam The Royal Concertgebouw (, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb Architectural acoustics, acoustics place it among the finest concert halls in the ...

Konzerthaus, Vienna The Konzerthaus is a concert hall located in Vienna, Austria, which opened in 1913. It is situated in the third district just at the edge of the first district in Vienna. Since it was founded it has always tried to emphasise both traditional and ...

Tonhalle, Zürich The Tonhalle is a concert hall in Zurich, home to the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, one of Switzerland's leading orchestras. The 1455-seat hall, located at Claridenstrasse 7 in Zurich, was inaugurated in 1895 by Johannes Brahms. The hall is consid ...

Kölner Philharmonie The Kölner Philharmonie is a symphonic concert hall located in Cologne, Germany. It is part of the building ensemble of the Museum Ludwig and was opened in 1986. The Kölner Philharmonie is located close to the Cologne Cathedral and the Köln ...

Oper Frankfurt The Oper Frankfurt (Frankfurt Opera) is a German opera company based in Frankfurt. Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Schreker's ''Der ferne Klang'' in 1912, ''Fennimore and Gerda, Fennimore ...

Philharmonie Luxembourg The Philharmonie Luxembourg, also known officially as the Grande-Duchesse Joséphine-Charlotte Concert Hall (, ), is a concert hall located in the European district in the Luxembourg City quarter of Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg. Opened in 2005 ...

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

, Paris,

Liceu The Gran Teatre del Liceu (; ; ), or simply Liceu, is a theater in Barcelona, Spain. Situated on La Rambla, it is the city's oldest theater building still in use for its original purpose. Founded in 1837 at another location, the Liceu ope ...

, Barcelona,

Elbphilharmonie The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. The new construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave ...

, Hamburg,

Palau de la Música Catalana Palau de la Música Catalana (, ) is a concert hall in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Designed in the Catalan ''modernisme, modernista'' style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, it was built between 1905 and 1908 for Orfeó Català, a ...

, Oji Hall Tokyo and festivals in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the English county, county of Suffolk, England, north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the comp ...

, Barcelona, Baden Baden, Schloss Elmau, deSingel,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Munich, Ravinia,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Seoul, Stuttgart,

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and Vancouver. He made his

BBC Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

debut in 2016 alongside Iestyn Davies and Carolyn Sampson and returned in 2018 alongside Dame Sarah Connolly where they premiered recently discovered songs by Benjamin Britten and launched their recital CD for Chandos He has a critically acclaimed, fast-growing and award-winning discography which has resulted in an

Edison Award The Edison Award is an annual Dutch music prize awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry. It is comparable to the American Grammy Award. The Edison award itself is a bronze replica of a statuette of Thomas Edison, designed by ...

with

and numerous nominations for

Gramophone A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

and

BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, was the original owner and publisher together with ...

Awards. His recordings on

Harmonia Mundi Harmonia Mundi is a record label that specializes in classical music, jazz, and world music (on the World Village label). It was founded in France in 1958 and is now a subsidiary of PIAS Entertainment Group, which is itself owned by Universal M ...

, Chandos, BIS, Signum and Champs Hill Records with Dame Sarah Connolly, Carolyn Sampson, Iestyn Davies, Ruby Hughes, Amanda Roocroft, Louise Alder, Mary Bevan, Christopher Maltman have been selected as Disc of the Year in: ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

''; ''

American Record Guide The ''American Record Guide'' (''ARG'') is a classical music magazine. It has reviewed classical music recordings since 1935. History and profile The magazine was founded by Peter Hugh Reed in May 1935 as the ''American Music Lover''. It chan ...

'';

International Classical Music Awards The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) are music awards first awarded 6 April 2011. ICMA replace the Cannes Classical Awards (later called MIDEM Classical Awards) formerly awarded at MIDEM. The jury consists of music critics of magazines ...

and on

Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist media, generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed wi ...

. His interest in the furthering of the song repertoire has led ''

'' magazine to describe him as "the absolute king of programming".

Personal life

Middleton lives near London with his wife and two children. He has a younger sister.

Select discography

* ''Lines written during a sleepless night'', with

(Chandos 2020) * ''The Contrast, English Poetry in Song'', with

(BIS 2020) * ''The Divine Muse'', with Mary Bevan (Signum 2020) * ''The Soldier'', with

(Signum 2019) * ''Reason in Madness'', with Carolyn Sampson (BIS 2019) * ''Come into my Dreams'', with Dame Sarah Connolly (Signum 2018) * ''A Soprano's Schubertiade'', with Carolyn Sampson (BIS 2018) * ''Voyages'', with Mary Bevan (Signum 2017) * ''Debussy and Mozart Songs'', with Kate Royal, Nicky Spence, Ashley Riches (''

'' Cover CD 2017) * ''Lost is my Quiet'', with Carolyn Sampson and Iestyn Davies (BIS 2017) * ''Strauss Lieder'', with Louise Alder (Orchid Classics 2017) * ''A Verlaine Songbook'', with Carolyn Sampson (BIS 2016) * ''Songs to the Moons'', with

et al. (Signum 2016) * ''Nocturnal Variations'', with Ruby Hughes (CHR 2016) * ''Songs by Purcell realized by Britten'', with Ruby Hughes, Anna Grevelius,

Robin Blaze Robin Blaze (born 11 January 1971) is a British countertenor. Early life He was born in Manchester, England. The son of Peter Blaze, a professional golfer, and Christine, Blaze and his brother Mark grew up in Shadwell, near Leeds, and was ed ...

, Allan Clayton, Benedict Nelson, Matthew Rose (CHR 2016) * ''Fleurs'', with Carolyn Sampson (BIS 2015) * ''This Other Eden'', with Kitty Whately (CHR 2015) * ''Love said to me'', with Caroline MacPhie (Stone Records 2014) * ''Cheryl Frances-Hoad Songs'', with Jennifer Johnston (CHR 2014) * ''Ludwig Thuille Lieder'', with Sophie Bevan (CHR 2013) * ''Tell Me the Truth About Love'', with

(CHR 2013) * ''Elgar Songs'', with Dame

(CHR 2011) * ''Spanish Songs'', with Clara Mouriz (Sonimage 2010)

References

External links

*
"Joseph Middleton"
Askonas Holt Agency
"Joseph Middleton"
Chandos Records
"Joseph Middleton (piano)"
Hyperion Records {{DEFAULTSORT:Middleton, Joseph 1981 births Living people 21st-century British classical pianists 20th-century British classical pianists British classical pianists Classical accompanists Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Academics of the Royal Academy of Music British piano educators