Tim Mead


Tim Mead is an English countertenor.
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Life and career

Tim Mead was born in Chelmsford, Essex and began singing as a treble in the choir of Chelmsford Cathedral. He was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford and the Junior Department of Trinity College of Music where he studied cello and piano. He was an undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar studying musicology. After graduating, he won a number of scholarships for post-graduate studies at the Royal College of Music where he studied with Robin Blaze.
Mead has performed with many leading interpreters including conductors Howard Arman, Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, William Christie, Stephen Cleobury, Marcus Creed, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Alan Curtis, Ottavio Dantone, Paul Goodwin, Emmanuelle Haïm, Thomas Hengelbrock, Vladimir Jurowski, Bernard Labadie, Raymond Leppard, Nicholas Kraemer, Alessandro de Marchi, Nicholas McGegan, Marc Minkowski, James O'Donnell, Antonio Pappano, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Andreas Spering, Masaaki Suzuki and Jos van Veldhoven. He has collaborated with opera directors including David Alden, Robert Carsen, Doris Dörrie, Stephen Langridge, David McVicar, Katie Mitchell, Ole Anders Tandberg, Deborah Warner and Chen Shi-Zheng.
He has appeared with ensembles including Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, The English Concert, Les Arts Florissants, Le Concert d'Astrée, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Concerto Köln, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, Accademia Bizantina, Bach Collegium Japan, the Netherlands Bach Society, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, RIAS Kammerchor, and the Pygmalion Ensemble.
In September 2016 Mead sang in Bach's Mass in B minor as part of The BBC Proms.
Mead is a founding member of The Prince Consort. The consort have recorded works by Ned Rorem, Brahms and Stephen Hough.

Opera roles

Mead's opera roles to date have included:

Recordings

Mead has a wide-ranging and growing discography including the multi-award-winning recording of Bach's Matthäus Passion with Pygmalion under Raphaël Pichon, Gramophone Award nominated recordings of Handel's Flavio with the Early Opera Company under Christian Curnyn, Bach's B minor Mass with Arcangelo under Jonathan Cohen and a DVD of Britten's Death in Venice with English National Opera under Edward Gardner, directed by Deborah Warner and the BBC Music Magazine Awards nominated recording of Handel's Brockes Passion. Mead's solo albums include Beauteous Softness with La Nuova Musica, Sacroprofano with Arcangelo, Songs & Dances with Les Musicens de Saint Julien and Bach solo cantatas with La Nuova Musica. He is featured on two recordings as a treble chorister soloist.