Martyn Hill is one of the most distinguished international tenors of his generation, known as an opera singer, concert and oratorio soloist, and recitalist. He has sung with many of the world’s leading orchestras and his wide concert repertoire ranges from Messiah and the Evangelist in the Bach Passions, to Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Berlioz’s La Damnation of Faust and Verdi’s Requiem. He regularly performs the works of Benjamin Britten, and performances include War Requiem with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Edo de Waart and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and André Previn, Spring Symphony with the Hallé Orchestra and Kent Nagano, Les Illuminations with l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and James Loughran, and the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Stnngs with the Israel Chamber Orchestra and Armin Jordan. He has recorded the Serenade with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Operatic performances include Idomeneo (Glyndebourne), Tom Rakewell (Boston), the title role in Oedipus Rex, Mozart in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri and Achilles in Tippett’s King Priam (Royal Festival Hall), Flamand Capriccio (Metz), Quint The Turn of the Screw (Scottish Opera), Alessandro Il Re Pastore (Opera North and Radio France), Eumetes II Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria (Innsbruck, Tokyo, Athens, Florence and Cremona), Admète Alceste (Montpelher) and Peter Grirnes (Canterbury Festival). In 1998 he created the title role in Sandeep Bhagwati’s Ramanujan at the Munich Biennale. Opera recordings include Emilio in Handel's Partenope, Noctambule in Charpentier's Louise, the Teacher in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, and Red Whiskers in Billy Budd conducted by Kent Nagano. He recorded the title role in Peter Maxwell Davies’s Tavener for BBC Radio 3, and General Sir Philip Wingrave in a production for Channel 4 TV of Britten’s Owen Wingrave conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Margaret Williams.

Recitals include the complete song cycles of Sir Michael Tippett in London’s Wigrnore Hall in the presence of the composer on his 90th birthday, followed by a recording of the same repertoire for Hyperion., and Schubert's three song cycles Die Schöne Müllerin, Winterreise and Schwanengesange in London’s St John’s Smith Square on consecutive days. He has given staged performances of Winterreise in Paris, Berlin and London and has performed Hans Zender’s arrangement of the work in Frankfurt with Ensemble Modern.

Martyn Hill is a fine exponent of contemporary music and performances have included Schoenberg’s Von Heute auf Morgen with Boulez and the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Vienna, Lutoslawski’s Paroles Tissées in Wroclaw conducted by the composer, Nono’s Canto Sospeso with Metzmacher in Salzburg, Henze’s Kammermusik in Geneva, and Holliger’s Erde und Himmel in Luceme and Zurich conducted by the composer. He gave the world premiere of Elliott Carter’s In sleep, in thunder with the London Sinfonietta and Oliver Knussen, a work he has since performed in Berlin and Vienna with Ensemble Modern.

He has recorded for EMI, Hyperion, Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Erato Disques, Vanguard and Virgin Classics. Recordings include Herbert Howells’ Missa Sabrinensis with the LSO and Rozhdestvensky, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Frank Martin’s In terra pax with the LPO and Matthias Bammert, and most recently Stainer’s Cruxifiction with the BBC Singers, and songs by Percy Grainger for Chandos Records.

Recent performances include Luigi Nono’s Prometeo in Berlin and New York with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado , the premiere of Sir John Tavener’s Fall and Resurrection in St Paul’s Cathedral broadcast on BBCTV, Carter’s What Next? with Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, Nono’s Canto sospeso at La Scala, Togni’s Barrabas in Brescia and Cremona, and Reverend Adams in Peter Grimes with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Future engagements include What Next? in Belgiuin and Lilaque Boulevard Solitude in Genova.

Andrew Ball – Piano

Andrew Ball studied with Kendall Taylor at the Royal College of Music and read music at Queen's College, Oxford.  Since then a busy career has taken him all over the world.  He has a reputation for innovative and imaginative programming, and chamber music and contemporary music have always been important to him.  He has given countless premieres (including the first British performance of Sofia Gubaidulina's Piano Sonata at the Bath Festival), made his BBC Proms debut playing Messiaen and studied Tippett's sonatas with the composer.  He has played with the Nash Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Villiers Piano Quartet and Gemini.  Many acclaimed CDs range from the complete Tippett song-cycles with Martyn Hill to Billy Mayerl's works for piano and orchestra.  Formerly a sought-after teacher at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Andrew Ball became Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music in September 1999.  He also gives many master classes most recently in Berlin and Japan.