Marcus Farnsworth is a past first prize-winner of the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition and has performed many times at Wigmore Hall, both in solo recitals and with the Myrthen Ensemble and the Nash Ensemble.
He has also appeared in recital at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and La Monnaie, Brussels with Julius Drake; on a UK tour of Schubert Winterreise with James Baillieu; for Leeds Lieder with Graham Johnson and at Opéra de Lille with Simon Lepper.
His regular appearances for English National Opera include Guglielmo Così fan tutte, Strephon Iolanthe, Bill Bobstay in HMS Pinafore, Noye Noye’s Fludde in a collaboration with Theatre Royal Stratford East and this season he reprises the role of Strephon.
Other recent and future plans include his debut at Garsington Opera singing Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos; orchestrated Schubert songs with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra; appearances at the Three Choirs Festival; European tours of Purcell King Arthur with the Gabrieli Consort and Vox Luminis, and recitals at Snape Maltings with Malcolm Martineau and the Fundacion Juan March Madrid with Sholto Kynoch.
Past highlights include Candide with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop; Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King at the BBC Proms with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group conducted by Sian Edwards; HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!! with the Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon in Cologne and roles in Kurt Weill Street Scene at Teatro Real Madrid.
Previous operatic roles have included Sid in Britten Albert Herring in concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Ned Keene Peter Grimes at the Edinburgh International Festival, on tour and recorded with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner; Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Aix-en-Provence Festival on tour and Eddy in Turnage Greek for Boston Lyric Opera. As well as many new works, including Colin Matthews The Great Journey; Turnage The Silver Tassie; Cheryl Hoad’s Last Man Standing and Hubbard in John Adams’ Doctor Atomic conducted by the composer with the BBC SO.
Marcus’s expansive concert repertoire includes Britten War Requiem; Elgar The Apostles; Orff Carmina Burana; Berlioz L’enfance du Christ and the Brahms and Fauré Requiem with conductors including François-Xavier Roth, Paul McCreesh and Bernard Labadie. He has also sung Bach St Matthew Passion and St John Passion (Christus and Arias) with many symphony and period orchestras, most recently with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Gabrieli Consort.
Marcus is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Southwell Music Festival.