Paul Agnew

One of the world's foremost tenors specializing in Baroque opera and choral music, Paul Agnew has a long vocal résumé that includes works of many nationalities and time periods. He has also turned to conducting in the second half of his career, becoming the first conductor other than founder <a href="spotify:artist:7mkcqdifmNkhfJ7XZ7WFFS">William Christie</a> to lead the noted French Baroque ensemble <a href="spotify:artist:652tly1eoAkKzhJ5z4LsEx">Les Arts Florissants</a>.

Agnew was born in Glasgow on April 11, 1964. He attended Magdalen College at Oxford University as a choral scholar, performing in the school's famous chapel choir in addition to his academic studies. When he graduated, London's early music scene was burgeoning, and there were plenty of opportunities for a young singer. He performed in the <a href="spotify:artist:792HWopzvPacbFWQYJZVUA">Consort of Musicke</a> and also sang at various times with <a href="spotify:artist:5y9NnD1AZPcBVbDluRgiXS">The Sixteen</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0lGwsO9MkfDSC2MH488GtW">Gothic Voices</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:3vENFkiF5PZRluBBtQiwcG">The Tallis Scholars</a>. Launching a career as a soloist in the early '90s, Agnew attracted <a href="spotify:artist:7mkcqdifmNkhfJ7XZ7WFFS">Christie</a>'s attention and was offered the chance to move to France to perform with <a href="spotify:artist:652tly1eoAkKzhJ5z4LsEx">Les Arts Florissants</a>. He was soon the group's lead vocal soloist, performing lead roles in such operas as <a href="spotify:artist:4JSWO1Pf2zV991fq64uAce">Rameau</a>'s Hippolyte et Aricie, in a production that traveled around France and as far as New York. Agnew was a tenor, but he also sang in a high register in a voice known in French as the haute-contre. He has sometimes been described as a countertenor as well as a tenor, but the haute-contre, of which Agnew was one of the few exponents when he began taking such roles in the '90s, has a different vocal quality that involves less falsetto than a true countertenor voice. Although Agnew has devoted much of his career to <a href="spotify:artist:652tly1eoAkKzhJ5z4LsEx">Les Arts Florissants</a>, he has also sung in English and has recorded a wide variety of material, including songs of Ivor Gurney and, in 2001, Beethoven's settings of English-language folk songs. He has also performed in large choral works by <a href="spotify:artist:5aIqB5nVVvmFsvSdExz408">Bach</a> and others and recorded English voice and lute music with lutenist <a href="spotify:artist:5p1uDjMOdF75jZUedik5yi">Christopher Wilson</a>.

In 2007, Agnew began leading <a href="spotify:artist:652tly1eoAkKzhJ5z4LsEx">Les Arts Florissants</a> as associate conductor; he began to conduct the group more and more often, and later, he was named joint music director. In 2018, conducting <a href="spotify:artist:652tly1eoAkKzhJ5z4LsEx">Les Arts Florissants</a>, he released an album devoted to little-known French Baroque motet composers <a href="spotify:artist:7pepBdq60sda62Z3JyKFyd">Sébastien de Brossard</a> and Pierre Bouteiller. <a href="spotify:artist:7mkcqdifmNkhfJ7XZ7WFFS">Christie</a> remains the artistic director of <a href="spotify:artist:652tly1eoAkKzhJ5z4LsEx">Les Arts Florissants</a>, but Agnew has begun to conduct the group more often. He has led music from beyond the French Baroque, initiating recorded series of the madrigals of <a href="spotify:artist:5iAhVgz6P8Nylxijb0C65v">Monteverdi</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:7wi1x9DxLtqnhzJIQa7JQF">Gesualdo</a> in the 2010s and 2020s. In 2023, the <a href="spotify:artist:7wi1x9DxLtqnhzJIQa7JQF">Gesualdo</a> series concluded with recordings of the composer's Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals and the Tenebrae Responsories. ~ James Manheim, Rovi