A young international superstar and a master accompanist

In association with the Elder Conservatorium of Music, the Accompanists Guild Festival and the Guild/Musica Viva Weekend of Song

Jonathan Lemalu

A powerful, warm and captivating bass baritone, Jonathan Lemalu is now one of the most sought-after talents on the international concert, operatic and recital circuit.

Jonathan is a New Zealand-born Samoan, brought up in the southern city of Dunedin. Jonathan studied both Law and Music at the University of Otago, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1999. He completed three years study at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in July 2002, taking with him the College’s highly esteemed gold medal. In his first year he completed a postgraduate certificate then gained a place on the two-year RCM London Royal Schools Opera Course, now known as the RCM Benjamin Britten International Opera School.

Jonathan first recorded for EMI Classics in 2001 on the Debut label, to great critical acclaim. Accompanied by pianist Roger Vignoles, the CD Jonathan Lemalu, Roger Vignoles. Songs: Brahms, Faure, Finzi, Schubert, launched in London May 6, 2002, winning the prestigious Gramophone award for Best Debut Recording at the 2002 awards.

Jonathan has since been signed exclusively to the main EMI Classics label and released his first major EMI recording on 18 April 2005, Opera Arias. Recorded with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, under the conductor James Judd, Jonathan sings some of the most famous bass and baritone roles in the operatic repertoire. The arias include the comical Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) and A un dottor della mia sorte from Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). Weightier roles include Die Frist ist um from Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) and L’onore! Ladri!, sung in the title role of Verdi’s Falstaff.

Lemalu has won a host of competitions and awards, including; 1997 Dame Sister Mary Leo Scholarship, 1998 New Zealand Mobil Song Quest, 1999 Australia's McDonald's Operatic Aria Contest at the Sydney Opera House, 2000 Inaugural Llangollen International Singer 2000 Competition, RCM Graziella Sciutti Recital Prize, RCM Keith Faulkner Oratorio Prize, 2000 LASMO Staffa Singers Prize, Bruce Millar/Gulliver Award for Young Opera Singers (Glasgow), Overall winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Competition (and Royal Over-Seas, League Singers Prize, and Overseas Award), Richard Tauber Prize for Singers (Wigmore Hall), Concert FM Broadcasting Artist of the Year (NZ), 2000 recipient of the RCM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rosebowl (presented by HRH Prince Charles) and NFMS Alfreda Hodgson Prize.

Malcolm Martineau

Malcolm Martineau was born in Edinburgh, read music at St Catharine's College, Cambridge and studied at the Royal College of Music. He has presented his own series at St Johns Smith Square (the complete songs of Debussy and Poulenc), the Wigmore Hall (a Britten series broadcast by the BBC) and at the Edinburgh Festival (the complete lieder of Hugo Wolf). He has appeared throughout Europe (including La Scala, Milan; the Chatelet, Paris; the Liceu, Barcelona; Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein), North America (including in New York both Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall), Australia (including the Sydney Opera House) and at the Aix en Provence, Vienna, Edinburgh, Schubertiade, Munich and Salzburg Festivals.

Recent recording projects have included Schubert, Schumann and English song recitals with Bryn Terfel (for Deutsche Grammophon), Schubert and Strauss Recitals with Simon Keenlyside (for EMI), recital records with Angela Gheorghiu and Barbara Bonney (for Decca), Magdalena Kozena (for DG) and Della Jones (for Chandos), the complete Faure Songs with Sarah Walker and Tom Krause, the complete Britten Folk Songs for Hyperion, and the complete Beethoven Folk Songs for Deutsche Grammophon.

Malcolm Martineau has accompanied many of the world's leading singers and instrumentalists, notably Dame Janet Baker, Sarah Walker, Della Jones, Frederica von Stade, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Hampson, Angela Gheorghiu, Olaf Bär, Karita Mattila, Solveig Kringelborn, Michael Schade and Ian Bostridge. His current and future recitals include appearances with Amanda Roocroft, Barbara Bonney, Joan Rodgers, Michael Schade, Sir Thomas Allen, Ann Murray, Susan Graham, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Jonathan Lemalu, Simon Keenlyside, Magdalena Kožená and Bryn Terfel.