Robin Blaze

Prominent countertenor Robin Blaze has a variety of specialties, including Renaissance music, Baroque- and Classical-era opera, and virtuoso ensemble singing. He is also an important educator. Blaze has released a number of solo albums and many others as a guest. The latter group includes the 2023 Westminster Abbey Choir release Vaughan Williams, Tavener, MacMillan. Blaze was born in Manchester, England, on January 11, 1971. His father, Peter Blaze, was a professional golfer, and Robin plays the sport. As early as 1981, he was recorded as a boy treble. Blaze attended Uppingham School, where he took lessons in countertenor singing with John Whitworth. He went on to Magdalen College at Oxford University, where he sang in choirs and with the Dufay Consort; he was recorded with the latter. Blaze earned a scholarship for further studies at the Royal College of Music in London, later joining the faculty at that school. In 1988, he appeared as a soloist on the album Music for St. Paul's with the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir, London, and the Parley of Instruments. He appeared as a soloist with various leading English choirs in the 1990s, and in the late '90s and early 2000s, he appeared on several volumes of the complete Bach cantata series recorded by the Bach Collegium Japan. Blaze maintained busy concert and recording careers even with the demands of an academic schedule. He made appearances in Handel operas in Britain and beyond, and he has been visible at festivals, including the Boston Early Music Festival, where he performed in a noted production of Henry Purcell's King Arthur. Blaze has appeared with many leading early music ensembles, including Fretwork and I Fagiolini in Britain, the Collegium Vocale Ghent in Belgium, and Tafelmusik in Canada. In addition to the Bach cantata recordings and various appearances on albums by early music groups, Blaze released several solo albums on Hyperion and several other labels, including Songs by Henry & William Lawes (2007). Most of his work falls between the Renaissance and Classical periods, but in 2008, he appeared with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir on the album Toivo Tulev: Songs, featuring music by that contemporary Estonian composer. Blaze continued to appear on Suzuki's series through the late 2010s, and he made several albums with the Choir of Westminster Abbey, including Vaughan Williams, Tavener, MacMillan in 2023. He has performed as a member of the ORA Singers small choir, which specializes in newly commissioned works. Blaze is on the faculty at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, Netherlands. ~ James Manheim, Rovi