Russell Harcourt - counter tenor
Sydney born counter tenor Russell Harcourt made his operatic debut in 2007 as Oberon A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. He studied voice at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Graham Pushee and Dr. Rowena Cowley and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His roles at the Royal Academy of Music include Athamas Semele with Sir Charles Mackerras and Volano in Cavalli’s Il Giasone with Jane Glover.
Last season he sung Corrado in Vivaldi's Griselda for Pinchgut Opera in Sydney with Erin Helyard. He has covered Fox/Coachman in The Adventures of Pinocchio for Opera North, Armindo in Partenope for Opera Australia, Roberto in Griselda for Pinchgut Opera, and both Zelim in Vivaldi’s La Verita in Cimento and Licida in Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade for Garsington Opera Festival.
He made his Australian concert debut in 2009 as a guest artist at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and his Royal Opera House debut in 2011 in the Deloitte Ignite Series. His oratorio experience include alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus, Israel in Egypt and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Recent concerts include the alto solos in St Matthew Passion for the Leicester Bach Choir.
Russell Harcourt was an associate of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He has performed in master classes for Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Andreas Scholl, and Rosalind Plowright and he is an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. He currently studies with Yvonne Kenny.
Prizes and scholarships include Hariclea Darclée Special Award for Excellence, The Sir Robert Askin Operatic Travelling Scholarship, Tait Memorial Trust Grant, Australian Music Foundation Awards, Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant, Australia Council for the Arts Skills and Arts Development Grant and the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship. He was a finalist at the 2012 Kathleen Ferrier Awards.
Plans include the cover of Armindo in Handel’s Partenope for Opera Australia, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Australian Ballet, Narciso Agrippina and Nutrice L’Incoronazione di Poppea for English Touring Opera and Messiah in Wellington, New Zealand.