Peter Brathwaite Baritone
Recipient of INDEPENDENT OPERA Postgraduate Voice Fellowship 2010-2012
Born in Manchester, baritone Peter Brathwaite is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music International Opera School, where he studied with Russell Smythe as the Yvonne Wells Scholar supported by a Joe Lassetter Award and the Josephine Baker Trust. Previous to this he gained aFirst Class Honours Degree in Philosophy and Fine Art from the University of Newcastle andcompleted two years of postgraduate vocal study at the Royal College of Music. He is the winner of the Samuel Coleridge Taylor Award at the Black British Classical Foundation, Voice of Black Opera Competition, a Peter Moores Foundation Major Award holder, Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme Alumna, Winston Churchill Fellow and winner of the RCM Ted Moss and Bertha Taylor-Stach Lieder Prize. Peter has taken part in masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Edith Wiens, John Shirley-Quirk, Philip Langridge, Sarah Walker, Robert Tear and Peter Harvey.
As a member of the RCM International Opera School he appeared as Papageno, Die Zauberflöte, Nardo, La Finta Giardiniera and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Appearances elsewhere have included Germano in Rossini's La Scala di Seta for British Youth Opera, Elder Son in Charpentier's Filius Prodigus for the Newcastle Early Music Festival and he was a soloist in Carmen Jones at the Royal Festival Hall with both the Philharmonia Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Peter made his French operatic debut in 2008 at the Opéra National de Lyon singing the role of Nelson in Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu's critically acclaimed Porgy & Bess. A role which he reprised in the 09/10 season both at the Opéra de Lyon and in his Edinburgh International Festival debut. In the same season Peter made his debut as Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte at the Château de Panloy, La Rochelle and was a member of the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus in Billy Budd, conducted by Sir Mark Elder.
Concert performances include Christus in a performance of Bach's St John Passion for Ensemble Arden in Varberg, Sweden and Handel's Messiah in Trollhätten, Sweden. Other engagements have included Orff's Carmina Burana, various Cantatas by Bach, Bach's Easter Oratorio with Ashley Solomon; Mozart's Requiem in Newcastle Cathedral, Haydn's Nelson Mass with Paul Spicer and the Whitehall Choir, Stainer's Crucifixion in Sweden; Gounod's St Cecelia Mass at Haddo House, Aberdeen and excerpts from Purcell's King Arthur for the London Handel Festival. In recital he has performed at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh; the Austrian Cultural Forum; Bloomsbury International Concert Series and was featured on BBC Radio 3's Performance on 3. He has also appeared in recital with Sarah Walker and Yvonne Kenny as part of the Chelsea Schubert Festival and in the Wigmore Hall Spring 2010 Series, singing songs by Brahms and Schubert with pianist Simon Lepper.
Peter joined the Operastudio Vlaanderen in Ghent for 2010/11 where he sang, among other roles, Jean in Philippe Boesmans' Julie. Peter's time at the Operastudio is generously supported by awards from the Peter Moores Foundation and Stichting Robus. Peter is grateful for the support of an INDEPENDENT OPERA Postgraduate Voice Fellowship. Current and future engagements include working with director Joanna Turner at Opera North on the creation of a new opera based on Thomas Hardy's short story, 'The Withered Arm', in collaboration with composer Jenny Gould and librettist Rachel Barnett; Bach's St Matthew Passion on tour in Scandinavia and he will sing Marcello in La Boheme for the Nationale Reisopera RAP in Enschede, Netherlands. Further ahead, Peter looks forward to making his Bridgewater Hall solo recital debut in the 2011/12 season.
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