Chris Elliott is a Lyric Tenor with bases in Scotland, Northumberland, London &
New York.
A recent graduate of the RSAMD Opera School, Chris received a “student with outstanding potential” award from Scottish Opera, the Friends of Scottish Opera and The Caledonian Foundation USA, won the John Ireland Song Prize, and was one of the 50 young conductors, directors and singers around the world to be chosen by Opera Now Magazine for their annual “Who’s Hot?” feature of the rising stars.
Chris hails from Northumberland in the UK and started his musical life as Head Chorister at Durham Cathedral & with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.
He studies with Arthur Levy in New York and is also one of only a handful of pupils in the care of the legendary Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda.
Chris was also recently made a Crear Scholar, taking part in a week-long residential song Masterclass at Crear with Malcolm Martineau.
He also took part in a week-long residential masterclass in Strauss & Purcell song with Roger Vignoles in Upper Austria, working with pianist Ingrid Sawers.
He has sung Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Albert (Albert Herring), Tito (La clemenza di Tito), Youngest Son & (understudy) The Lover (The Vanishing Bridegroom), Bill (Flight), Dr Bartolo (The Marriage of Figaro), Bardolfo (Falstaff), Rinuccio (Gianni Schicci) and (exerpts) Don Basilio (Figaro), Lenski (Eugene Onegin), Nadir (The Pearl Fishers), Rudolfo (La Boheme), Pang (Turandot), Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress), Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia), and Nemorino (L'elisir d'amore).
For the Edinburgh International Festival he sung in Curlew River for conductor Gary Walker, and as a Lehrbube in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for David Robertson.
Chris' oratorio engagements have included The Messiah for The Boscastle Flood Appeal; The St Matthew Passion & Mozart's Requiem and Vespers in Durham Cathedral; Haydn’s The Creation and Creation Mass; Schubert’s Mass in G & Schumann’s Requiem, Rutter’s A Sprig of Thyme, Stainer’s Crucifixion, Rossini’s Petit Messe Solennelle and Verdi’s Requiem.
In June 2012, Chris will give a concert at the Galleria Nazionale in Genoa on the theme “Il Golfo dei Poeti” (The Gulf of Poets) with Viennese pianist Bernadette Bartos. Along with songs by Strauss, Mendelssohn, Wolf, Quilter, Ireland, Britten, Respighi, Parry & Tosti it will feature the World Premiere of a song cycle of Eugenio Montale’s Motetti, written for Chris by the celebrated American song and opera composer Lori Laitman. Chris will then take this concert to various cities around the world.
Chris has performed over 60 development concerts with pianist Andrew Brown for the Edinburgh International Festival, and they recently recorded an album of art songs by Richard Strauss, Beethoven, Britten, Purcell, Hahn, Laitman & Quilter for the EIF’s education programme. The summer of 2012 will see Chris continue his relationship with the EIF, appearing in “Love in a Library”, a new guerilla opera project for tenor and soprano. Visit the Festival’s twitter feed and website for more details.
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For information on photographers, & fellow performers featured in photos on this website, please see ‘Acknowledgments’ on the ‘Photos’ page.
“Christopher Elliott used a voice of rare beauty to excellent effect as Ottavio. His recitative delivery was utterly delightful and worth the ticket price alone...His performance...leads me to the conclusion that this must be one of the best voices to have come out of the RSAMD for some time” - Opera Now Magazine