Hugh Cutting : une voix pour Bach

Bernard Labadie, an internationally recognized specialist in the baroque and classical repertoires, is the founding conductor of Les Violons du Roy. He was the ensemble’s music director from 1984 to 2014 and remains the music director of La Chapelle de Québec, which he founded in 1985.

As head of both ensembles, he has toured Europe and North America performing at some of the most illustrious concert halls and festivals: Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (New York), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Kennedy Center (Washington), the Barbican (London), Berlin Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris), Brussels’ Centre for Fine Arts, and the Salzburg, Bergen, Rheingau, and Schleswig-Holstein festivals.

In 2017, Bernard Labadie was named principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York. He conducts the orchestra’s annual concert series at Carnegie Hall, often with La Chapelle de Québec.

A much sought-after guest conductor in North America, he makes frequent appearances with major American and Canadian orchestras: Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Houston, New World Symphony, Montréal, Toronto and Ottawa. In Europe, he has conducted the Mozarteum of Salzburg and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the orchestras of Lyon, Bordeaux-Aquitaine, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. He has also headed several radio orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the radio orchestras in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hanover, and Helsinki.

Bernard Labadie regularly collaborates with some of the most prestigious period-instrument early music ensembles: Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, The English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Handel and Haydn Society (Boston).

At the opera, he served as artistic director of Opéra de Québec from 1994 to 2003 and as artistic director of Opéra de Montréal from 2002 to 2006. He has also appeared as guest conductor with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, and the Santa Fe, Cincinnati, and Glimmerglass operas. In 2021, he made his debut appearance at the Glyndebourne Festival.

Both as a guest conductor and with Les Violons du Roy, Bernard Labadie has recorded some twenty albums for Virgin Classics (now Erato), EMI, Pentatone, Dorian, ATMA, Hyperion, and Naïve.

A tireless ambassador for music in his hometown of Québec City, Bernard Labadie was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec, and Compagnon des arts et des lettres du Québec. He is also a recipient of the Medal of Honour of the National Assembly of Québec, the Banff Centre’s National Arts Award, the Samuel de Champlain Award, and honorary doctorates from Université Laval (Alma Mater) and the Manhattan School of Music.

­­­A former choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, Hugh Cutting is a graduate of the Royal College of Music where he was a member of the International Opera Studio. On graduating, he was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal, presented by King Charles III. In the autumn of 2021, Hugh became the first countertenor to win the Kathleen Ferrier Award and is the first countertenor to become a BBC New Generation Artist (2022-24).

Recent opera appearances include his debut at Opernhaus Zürich singing Monteverdi madrigals in Christian Spuck’s ballet setting, Refugee in Dove’s Flight, and Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda with the RCM International Opera Studio. Future highlights include his debut at Teatro alla Scala as Corindo in a new production of Cesti’s Orontea as well as appearances at Grange Park Opera and Garsington Opera.

Highlights on the concert platform include two appearances at Carnegie Hall for Bach’s St Matthew Passion and for a solo programme of Bach’s Cantatas with the Orchestra of St Luke’s and Bernard Labadie; multiple appearances at the Wigmore Hall alongside Iestyn Davies and Ensemble Guadagni, La Nuova Musica, The English Concert, and The Sixteen; Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Finnish Radio Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras and John Eliot Gardiner; a world premiere with the BBC Philharmonic; Purcell Odes for a Queen with The English Concert and Kristian Bezuidenhout and Handel’s Messiah with The Sixteen and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Hugh was a member of Les Arts Florissants 10th Jardin des Voix and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Arsace in Handel’s Partenope conducted by William Christie.

In the 2023/24 season, Hugh reunites with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie for multiple projects including Polinesso in Handel’s Ariodante, a solo programme of Italian baroque arias at the Philharmonie de Paris, and a duet programme with Carlo Vistoli at Wigmore Hall; a European tour of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Masaaki Suzuki; Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Wiener Symphoniker and Matthew Halls and on tour with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe; Bach’s B Minor Mass with Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Vladimir Jurowski; Handel’s Messiah with Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew and with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Bernard Labadie, two tours with Il Pomo d’Oro including Arscace in Handel’s Berenice in Madrid and Paris; a solo programme of Bach’s Cantatas with the Dunedin Consort; and The Boy in Benjamin’s Written on Skin with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Benjamin.