Nicholas Isherwood is one of the leading singers of early music and contemporary
music in the world today. He has worked with conductors such as Joel Cohen, William
Christie, Peter Eötvös, Paul McCreesh, Nicholas McGegan, Kent Nagano, Zubin Mehta
and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and composers Sylvano Bussotti, Elliott Carter, George
Crumb, Hans Werner Henze, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Olivier Messiaen, Giacinto
Scelsi, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis in prestigious venues around the
world, such as La Scala, La Fenice, Covent Garden, the Théatre des Champs Elysées,
Salzburg Festival, Concertgebouw, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Vienna Konzerthaus, Ravinia,
Tanglewood.
Some highlights of his operatic career include the role of Plutone in
Monteverdi's Il Ballo delle Ingrate at the Angers Opera and Antinoo in Il
Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria and Vespers with Boston Baroque, Claudio in
Handel's Agrippina at the festivals in Göttingen and Halle and for Harmonia
Mundi records, the role of Satiro in Luigi Rossi's Orfeo at the Châtelet and
for a European tour and Harmonia Mundi records, the role of Joas in Nicola
Porpora's Il Gedeone with Martin Haselböck and Musica Angelica in Los
Angeles, Frère Léon in Saint François d'Assise in the last composer-
supervised production, performed at the Royal Festival Hall and live BBC television
for the composer's 80th birthday, the role of Death in Victor Ullmann's Der
Kaiser von Atlantis in productions at Helmuth Rilling's Bach Akademie in
Stuttgart and with 2e2m at the Pompidou Centre and on tour, the title role in
Pascal Dusapin's Roméo et Juliette at the Avignon Festival and for a European
Tour, the title role in Toshio Hosokawa's Vision of Lear for the Munich
Biennale and in Japan, the role of Il Testimone in the world premiere of Sylvano
Bussotti's Tieste at the Rome Opera, the title role in Paul Mefano's
Micromégas and the role of Lucifer in the world premieres of Karlheinz
Stockhausen's operas Montag, Dienstag, and Freitag from Licht
at La Scala and the Leipzig Opera and in Donnerstag aus Licht at Covent
Garden.
He is an improviser who has performed with Steve Lacy, Joelle Léandre, Sainkho
Namtchilak and David Moss. He has recorded for labels such as Erato, Harmonia Mundi
and Naxos (8.559290). He has recently appeared in a Monteverdi program with La
Venexiana in Lyon and is in the middle of a world tour with his own staging of
Mauricio Kagel's Phonophonie.