Ailish Tynan and Joseph Middleton perform music including Ravel's Sheherazade, Poulenc La courte paille, and songs by Satie and Rosenthal.
Irish soprano Ailish Tynan came to prominence when she won the 2003 Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. She was part of the Vilar Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and a BBC New Generation Artist, where she actively recorded and performed with BBC Orchestras and in recital.
In the current season, Ailish's appearances include the Governess in Isabella Bywater’s new production of The Turn of the Screw for English National Opera, a role she will later reprise at the Music in PyeongChang Festival in South Korea and she will appear as Berta in a revival of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Glyndebourne Festival. She also creates the role of Christine in the World Premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen for the Royal Opera directed by Richard Jones. Her concert engagements include Handel’s Messiah at the National Concert Hall, Dublin and Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Royal Festival Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ailish has performed a wide range of operatic roles, including Gretel Hänsel und Gretel (Royal Ballet & Opera, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera), Erste Dame Die Zauberflöte, Berta Il barbiere di Siviglia, Madame Cortese Il viaggio a Reims, Madame Podtotshina’s Daughter The Nose(Royal Opera), Mimì La bohème, Zemfira Aleko, Vixen The Cunning Little Vixen (Grange Park Opera), Tigrane Radamisto (English National Opera), Papagena Die Zauberflöte (Teatro alla Scala), Despina Così fan tutte (Garsington Opera, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse), Héro Béatrice et Bénédict (Houston Grand Opera, Opéra Comique, Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg), Sophie Der Rosenkavalier, Nannetta Falstaff, Atalanta Xerxes (Royal Swedish Opera), and Miss Wordsworth Albert Herring (Opéra Comique, Opéra de Rouen).
Her concert performances have included Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (Gergiev/London Symphony Orchestra, Albrecht/Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, P. Järvi/Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Maazel/Philharmonia, Pappano/Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia), Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 (van Steen/Prague Symphony Orchestra, Elder/The Hallé), Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (Chung/Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bihlmaier/Irish National Symphony Orchestra), Verdi’s Requiem (Hofstetter/Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele), Haydn’s The Creation (Nelsons/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), Handel’s Messiah (Egarr/Academy of Ancient Music), and Handel’s Iris Semele, and CloriClori Tirsi e Fileno (Bicket/The English Concert). She has appeared at both the first and last nights of the BBC Proms, with performances including Bella A Midsummer Marriage (Davis/BBC Symphony Orchestra) and Glière’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano(Karabits/Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra).
Ailish is also an active recitalist, regularly collaborating with pianists such as Iain Burnside, James Baillieu, Graham Johnson, and Simon Lepper. She has performed at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Edinburgh, City of London, Gregynog, St. Magnus, Brighton, West Cork Music Festivals, the Vinterfespill, and for the Prince of Monaco at the Irish Embassy in Paris. She gave the World Premiere of Nuit d’Afrique, a piece written for her by Judith Weir, at Wigmore Hall.
Her extensive discography includes Fauré Mélodies, Nacht und Träume, and An Irish Songbook with Iain Burnside; Handel’s Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music; and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (Gergiev/LSO, Maazel/Philharmonia Orchestra). Ailish has presented several episodes of Saturday Classics for the BBC and appeared as a pundit on Proms Extra on television. She has also served as a jury member for the Song Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and the Wigmore Hall Song Competition.
Joseph Middleton is Director of Leeds Lieder, Musician-in-Residence at Pembroke College Cambridge and a Professor and Fellow at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music.
The 24/25 season sees Joseph partner artists including Veronique Gens, Sir Simon Keenlyside, Ian Bostridge, Dame Sarah Connolly, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Huw Montague Rendall, Roderick Williams, Florian Boesch, Christoph Prégardien, Carolyn Sampson and James Newby in recital. With Louise Alder and Mauro Peter he performs Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in Wigmore Hall, Frankfurt Oper, Vienna Musikverein, Barcelona, Leeds and Cambridge. Joseph also returns to the Berlin BoulezSaal and Schubertiade Schwarzenberg with Sophie Rennert and his recording projects include an ongoing 5-album set of Mahler Lieder for Signum Records and Wolf Lieder for BIS Records.
In recent seasons, Joseph has appeared at London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Opera House and Royal Festival Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Köln Philharmonie, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Lille and Gothenburg Opera houses, Berlin Boulez Saal, Paris Musée d’Orsay, Zürich Tonhalle, deSingel Antwerp, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Bozar Brussels, Tokyo’s Oji Hall and New York’s Alice Tully Hall. He regularly appears at festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and Hohenems, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Ravinia, Japan, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver as well as the BBC Proms.
Joseph enjoys partnerships with many internationally-established singers. In 2023/24 he returned to the Life Victoria Festival Barcelona - where he was the 22/23 Artist-in-Residence - with Miah Persson and Dame Sarah Connolly. Further appearances with Dame Sarah included performances in Seville, Amsterdam, and at the Wigmore Hall. He joined Sir Simon Keenlyside in Cambridge; Louise Alder in Vienna and London; Fatma Said in Vienna, Dortmund, Amsterdam, and at London’s Barbican Centre; Carolyn Sampson in Amsterdam, Zeist and London; and Katharina Konradi at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, Vilabertran and at the Wigmore Hall where he also partners Iestyn Davies, Nicky Spence, Mary Bevan, James Newby, Ashley Riches, and Ruby Hughes.
His fast-growing discography on Harmonia Mundi, BIS, Chandos and Signum Records have won him a Diapason D’or, Edison Award, Prix Caecilia as well as numerous Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine Award nominations.
