Saturday Christmas Recital with Stewart Kempster (Bass) accompanied by Kevin Duggan

STEWART KEMPSTER, BASS

Stewart was born in the UK and he studied Singing and Piano at The Royal Academy of Music winning many prizes and awards. Upon leaving he has performed much of the Bass operatic repertoire with many different Opera companies at home and abroad working with some of the greatest singers, directors and conductors in the business. His roles include Sarastro Magic Flute and Superintendent Budd Albert Herring both at the Longborough Festival. He also performed Don Magnifico Cenorentola at the legendary La Fenice Opera House in Venice and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Porgy Porgy and Bess and the four villain roles Tales of Hoffman for Wexford Festival Opera.  Stewart is an accomplished oratorio singer and has performed with many of the major choirs and orchestras in the UK in all of the standard oratorio repertory including all of the major works of J S Bach and many of his church cantatas in the City of London Bach Cantata Series. He appears on a number of CD recordings including Leighton’s Hymn to Matter and the Durufle Requiem with the RNSO and three CD’s of Chinese Lyrics by the English composer John Rose. He also sung in the Salzburg festival and in several broadcasts from the Proms, Wexford Festival and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on BBC Radio 3, Lyric FM and more recently worldwide in the popular live opera HD broadcasts to cinemas globally. Stewart has recorded a number of film scores including the Lord of the Rings working with Howard Shore and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and also with John Williams on the Star Wars soundtracks. In recital he has worked all over Europe including singing on the Isle of Bornholm, Denmark with Kevin Duggan as accompanist, in Switzerland in the Schloss Muntelier and in the Ried Hall Edinburgh where he performed the Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan-Williams. When not performing Stewart is an examiner for ABRSM and has undertaken tours all over the Asia Pacific region. He has also adjudicated the Hong Kong International Singing Competition and has given masterclasses for the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. In 2012 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), an award offered to past students of the Academy who have distinguished themselves in the music profession and made a significant contribution to it in their own particular field.