Ian Bostridge

award-winning opera and Lieder singer

Ian Bostridge was born in London and attended St John's College, Oxford, where he secured a First in modern history, then St. John's College, Cambridge, where he received an M.Phil in the history and philosophy of science. He was awarded his D.Phil from Oxford on the significance of witchcraft in English public life from 1650 to 1750. Bostridge worked in television current affairs and documentaries for two years in London before becoming a British Academy post-doctoral fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, teaching political theory and eighteenth-century British history. He became a full-time singer at 30, in 1995. Bostridge has performed in the foremost concert halls of Europe, Japan and North America, with regular appearances at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg and the Edinburgh, Munich and Aldeburgh festivals. Opera engagements have included ‘Don Giovanni’ and Adès’s ‘The Tempest’ for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; ‘The Rake's Progress’ in Munich; ‘Semele’ for English National Opera; 'Don Giovanni' for the Vienna State Opera; and Aschenbach ('Death in Venice') for both English National Opera and at the Monnaie, Brussels.