Michael Bundy - Baritone

Michael R Bundy, a music graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, has performed widely in diverse genres. He has appeared as soloist with groups such as The Sixteen, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and has a continuing relationship with the BBC Singers.

His operatic repertoire exceeds forty roles and he has sung with English National Opera, Kent Opera, Scottish Opera, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Mauritius Opera, and the Narodni Divadlo in Prague. He appeared with Theater Basel in Actus Tragicus - and performed with Opera Restor’d and the Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin in their production of Lampe’s comic opera The Dragon of Wantley.

His oratorio repertoire is catholic, and he broadcasts frequently for BBC Radio 3, including Bonnal's oratorio Poèmes Fransiscains. Work with Trevor Pinnock has included Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Europe, Istanbul and Japan, and he has also appeared as soloist with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Berlioz's L’Enfance du Christ, Handel’s Israel in Egypt (both BBC promenade concerts), Bach’s B Minor Mass, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and the Odes and Masques of Purcell. He has broadcast the role of Gobryas in Handel’s oratorio Belshazzar with Robert King and sang Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in Ely and Rochester cathedrals, and the Smetana Hall (Prague); a further performance was given in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, as was Mahler’s Symphony No 8, also performed at the Royal Albert Hall. Other recent performances this year have included Verdi's Requiem at Eton College and the Usher Hall, the Passions of J S Bach in St Albans' Abbey and the Coptic Cathedral in Stevenage, Rossini Petite Messe in Winchester Cathedral and Brahms' Requiem  in Kings College, Cambridge.

Specialising in French mélodie he has issued a series of recordings with Naxos featuring the Mélodies of Widor, Vierne and Tournemire. A book, Prophets Without Honour discussing these mélodies in great detail, is also available.  A further book, Visions of Eternity, dealing with the choral and operatic works of these same composers, is due for publication shortly.

Other commercial recordings include Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Chausson’s Le Roi Arthus, Tovey’s The Bride of Dionysus, Lydia Kakabadse's The Phantom Listeners and Michael Hurd’s The Widow of Ephesus.

Having given the premières of works by  Hardy, McGuire, McDowall, and also Sharriff’s opera Golem 13 (in Prague) demonstrates that he is as at home in contemporary music as he is with ‘lighter’ music, having broadcast the roles of Olin Britt (Music Man) and Mr Lindquist (A Little Night Music) for BBC Radio 2.