Michael Chance CBE (born in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, United Kingdom 7 March 1955) is an English

countertenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a s ...

and the founder and Artistic Director of

The Grange Festival The Grange Festival is a summer opera festival established to continue performances at The Grange opera house in Hampshire. The first season started on 7 June 2017 and featured operas by Monteverdi, Bizet and Britten. History Opera at The Gran ...

. Chance was born in Penn,

, into a musical family. After growing up as a chorister at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, attending the

St George's School St George's School or Saint George's School may refer to: Brunei * St. George's School, Brunei Canada * St. George's School of Montreal, Quebec * St. George's School (Vancouver), British Columbia Germany * St. George's The British Internation ...

, he went on to

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and later King's College, Cambridge. His first operatic appearance was in the Buxton Festival in Ronald Eyre's staging of Cavalli's '' Giasone'' which was followed by appearances in Lyon, Cologne, and three seasons with Kent Opera. Subsequently, he has performed in the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires,

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

Milan, Florence, New York, Lisbon, Oviedo, Leipzig, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and with

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, Glyndebourne, and English National Opera. His roles include the title roles of Orfeo ( Gluck), Giasone, Giustino, Rinaldo and Ascanio in Alba, Solomon, Ottone / L’incoronazione di Poppea, Athamas / Semele, Andronico / Tamerlano, Oberon /

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

, Tolomeo / Giulio Cesare and Apollo / Death in Venice. He has had roles written specially for him by Sir Harrison Birtwistle (Orpheus / The Second Mrs Kong) and Judith Weir (A Military Governor / A night at the Chinese Opera). Recent festival appearances include Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, BBC Proms in London, Salzburg and Bertarido in a new production of Handel's Rodelinda for the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. His appearances in oratorio and recital have taken him to concert halls all over the world including

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

, Concertgebouw,

Musikverein The ( or ; ), commonly shortened to , is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. The acoustics of the building's 'Great ...

, Neue Gewandhaus and Berlin's Philharmonie. He has given recitals in Frankfurt, Vienna, Amsterdam, Israel, New York and London's Wigmore Hall with a variety of programmes, ranging from Elizabethan lute songs to new works commissioned for him. He sings regularly with the viol consort Fretwork and has toured with them to Japan and the United States. Michael Chance's list of recordings is numerous and widespread. He received a Grammy award for his participation in Handel's Semele for Deutsche Grammophon with John Nelson and Kathleen Battle. He has recorded frequently with John Eliot Gardiner, including the Bach Passions and Cantatas, B Minor Mass, Monteverdi's Orfeo and L'Incoronazione di Poppea and Handel's Jephtha, Tamerlano and

Agrippina Agrippina is an ancient Roman cognomen and a feminine given name. People with either the cognomen or the given name include: Cognomen Relatives of the Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa: * Vipsania Agrippina (36 BC–20 AD), first wife of th ...

. Other conductors he has recorded with include Trevor Pinnock,

Frans Brüggen Franciscus ("Frans") Jozef Brüggen (30 October 1934 – 13 August 2014) was a Dutch Conducting, conductor, recorder player and baroque flautist. Biography Born in Amsterdam, Brüggen was the last of the nine children of August Brüggen, a textile ...

, Ton Koopman and Nicholas McGegan. On his CD for Deutsche Grammophon, “Michael Chance, the Art of Counter-tenor”, he sings solo alto cantatas by Vivaldi with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert. He took part in the project of Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir to record the complete vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His belief in extending the counter-tenor repertoire has prompted new work to be composed for him by Richard Rodney Bennett,

Alexander Goehr Peter Alexander Goehr (; born 10 August 1932) is an English composer and academic. Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and composer Walter Goehr, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. In his early twenties he emerged as a centra ...

, Tan Dun, Anthony Powers, John Tavener, and

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

- amongst others. His television appearances include A Night at the Chinese Opera, Death in Venice, The Fairy Queen, the three Monteverdi operas with Netherlands Opera, Poppea with Welsh National Opera, Messiah in Dublin with

Sir Neville Marriner Sir Neville Marriner, (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) was an English violinist and "one of the world's greatest conducting, conductors". Gramophone (magazine), Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another com ...

, and in the Autumn 1999 he was featured by the South Bank Show. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours. It was announced in October 2015 that Michael Chance would become the first Artistic Director of

, a new opera company established to continue performances at The Grange theatre in Hampshire. Opening in June 2017 with operas by Monteverdi, Mozart, Bizet and Britten,

is one of the few opera companies in the world to be led by an internationally renowned opera singer.

Footnotes

External links

Official websiteThe Grange Festival website

Hyperion Records: Michael Chance
* * ttp://www.michaelchancecountertenor.co.uk/biography/ Official website biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Chance, Michael Operatic countertenors British performers of early music 1955 births People from Chiltern District Living people People educated at Eton College Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Grammy Award winners Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People educated at St George's School, Windsor Castle Choral Scholars of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge