Tim Mead (born 1981) is an English countertenor. His operatic repertoire includes work by Handel, Britten, Monteverdi and contemporary composers, and he has performed with companies including the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne and English National Opera. His recordings include Bach's St Matthew Passion with Pygmalion, which received the 2022 Gramophone Award for Choral Recording.
Early life and education Tim Mead was born in Chelmsford, Essex, and sang as a treble in the choir of Chelmsford Cathedral. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford, and the Junior Department of Trinity College of Music, where he studied cello and piano. He later studied musicology at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar. After graduating, he undertook postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music, supported by several scholarships, and studied with countertenor Robin Blaze.
Career In 2005, Mead sang the title role in Handel's Ezio at the London Handel Festival."Review" by Erica Jeal, The Guardian (London) 17 March 2005. The following year, he appeared in the title role of Handel's Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne. In 2009, he sang the title role in Handel's Admeto in a production presented by the Göttingen International Handel Festival at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Mead appeared at the Royal Opera House in 2010 as Clearte in Agostino Steffani's Niobe, regina di Tebe. In 2011, he sang the title role in Handel's Orlando for Scottish Opera, and Eustazio in Rinaldo at Glyndebourne. His other roles during this period included Ottone in Handel's Agrippina at the Opéra de Lille and Opéra de Dijon.
Mead subsequently performed roles including the Voice of Apollo in Britten's Death in Venice at the English National Opera and Dutch National Opera, Endimione in Cavalli's La Calisto at the Bavarian State Opera, and Ottone in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea at English National Opera and other European opera houses. He also appeared in the world-premiere production of Harrison Birtwistle's The Minotaur at the Royal Opera House.
In 2015, Mead sang the title role in Philip Glass's Akhnaten for Opera Vlaanderen. That year, he also appeared as the Boy/Angel 1 in George Benjamin's Written on Skin at Lincoln Center as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival. In March 2016, he reprised the role at the Kölner Philharmonie in a semi-staged performance conducted by Benjamin. Mead has also sung Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Glyndebourne, Opera Philadelphia and Bergen National Opera.
In September 2016, Mead performed in Bach's Mass in B minor at the BBC Proms. He made his Australian debut in 2024, singing the title role in Handel's Giulio Cesare with Pinchgut Opera. Mead is also a founding member of The Prince Consort, which has recorded works by Ned Rorem, Johannes Brahms and Stephen Hough.The Prince Consort. Ensemble biography
Recordings Mead's recordings include Handel's Flavio with the Early Opera Company, conducted by Christian Curnyn (Chandos, 2010),"Review" by Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph (London) 29 October 2010 and Bach's St Matthew Passion with Pygmalion, conducted by Raphaël Pichon (Harmonia Mundi, 2022). The latter received the 2022 Gramophone Award for Choral Recording.
Mead released his first solo album, Sacroprofano, a programme of sacred and secular works by Vivaldi recorded with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen, on Alpha Classics in 2023. His second solo album, Beauteous Softness, recorded with La Nuova Musica and David Bates and devoted principally to songs by Purcell and his contemporaries, was released by Pentatone later that year.
References
External links
"Profile", Intermusica Artists' Management