Thomas Hobbs

Highlights of the 2018/19 season include Monteverdi Vespers with RIAS Kammerchor in Japan, Polish Baroque music by G.G. Gorczyck with Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, Bach’s St John Passion with Le Banquet Celeste, as well as several concerts with Collegium Vocale Gent and Gli Angeli Geneva.

His 2017/18 season included Bach B minor mass with Collegium Vocale Gent and Herreweghe at the Salzburg Festival, Haydn Creation with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO, Schumann Requiem with Richard Egarr and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Evangelist in Bach St Matthew Passion on tour with the Netherlands Bach Society, and Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican. He also sang Bach cantatas with the Milan Symphony Orchestra, Violons du Roy, and the Danish National Symphony, and travelled to Australia to sing Bach Christmas Oratorio with the Choir of London and Australian Chamber Orchestra. In addition he returned to Israel to sing Bach and Britten with the Israel Camerata, and sang Handel Alexander’s Feast with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, as well as Bach programmes with Gli Angeli Geneve, La Chapelle Harmonique, Dunedin Consort at Wigmore Hall, and with the Milan Symphony Orchestra.

Other concert performances include Haydn Creation with Israel Camerata in Jerusalem and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Bach Cantatas, B Minor Mass, and Easter Oratorio with Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Bach with the Musikpodium Stuttgart, and Monteverdi Vespers with the Academy of Ancient Music. Past highlights include Damon Acis and Galatea with Dunedin Consort, Bach cantatas with De Nederlandse Bachverenigning and Ensemble Pygmalion, Bach Christmas Oratorio with the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich and Le Concert Lorrain.

Hobbs’s operatic roles include a critically acclaimed Telemachus The Return of Ulysses in a new production for English National Opera conducted by Jonathan Cohen, Apollo and Shepherd in Monteverdi’s Orfeo in semi-staged performances with Richard Egarr and the AAM, the title role in Albert Herring and Ferrando Così fan tutte. A keen recitalist, highlights include Brett Dean Winter Songs at the Cheltenham Festival, Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge with the Edinburgh Quartet, Schubert Die Schöne Müllerin and Schumann Liederkreis Op.39, a recital of Mozart songs at London’s Kings Place, a recital of English song and German lieder for the Festival Accademia delle Crete Senesi in Tuscany, and, most recently, Wolf songs at the Oxford Lieder Festival and a recital at the Ryedale Festival with Christopher Glynn.

Hobbs’ ever-expanding discography includes Bach B minor Mass with both CVG and Dunedin Consort, Bach Motets, Leipzig cantatas and Christmas Oratorio with CVG, Christmas Oratorio with Dunedin Consort, Handel Acis et Galatea and Esther with Dunedin Consort and Beethoven Mass in C with Stuttgart Kammerchor. His recordings of Handel Chandos Anthems with Stephen Layton and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Mozart Requiem with John Butt and the Dunedin Consort have been universally praised, with the latter receiving the 2014 Gramophone Award for best Choral recording. Most recently he released a CD with Herreweghe/Collegium Vocale Gent - Bach, ‘Sonn und Child’ on the PHI label.

Born in Exeter, Thomas Hobbs studied at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Neil Mackie, where he was awarded the RCM Peter Pears and Mason scholarships, and at the Royal Academy of Music under Ryland Davies, where he held a Kohn Bach Scholarship in addition to a full entrance scholarship. He was also awarded a Susan Chilcott Scholarship, has been made a Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist and was an Associate Artist of the Classical Opera Company. He was also a member of the prestigious Académie at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, where he performed in concert with Louis Langrée and the Camerata Salzburg.

2018-19 season / 666 words. Not to be altered without permission.