Marcus Farnsworth

Soon after graduating from the University of Manchester, baritone Marcus Farnsworth began a very active performance schedule that includes operas and song recitals. In addition to performing, he is the founder and artistic director of the Southwell Music Festival. Farnsworth was born in October of 1983 in England's Nottinghamshire region and took up music as a small child. As with so many other English singers, his education began with a stint as a chorister, in his case, at Southwell Minster. He also attended the cathedral's comprehensive school. Farnsworth went on to the Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, where he added trumpet and jazz piano to his vocal studies with Martin Bussey. He switched to voice full-time at the University of Manchester, where he served as conductor of the University Chamber Choir. After graduating with first-class honors in 2005, he conducted the Manchester University Chorus from 2005 to 2009 and continued studying voice with David Lowe. He was also a lay clerk (a professional adult singer) at Manchester Cathedral and was a member of the BBC Daily Service Singers. He took classes at the Royal Academy of Music, and he garnered attention with a win at the 2009 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and by taking the Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards two years later. The year 2011 also marked Farnsworth's recording debut; he was heard with other singers on an album of E.J. Moeran's Complete Solo Folk Song Arrangements. His solo debut came in 2015 on the Naxos label on the album Through a Glass: Songs by Martin Bussey. Farnsworth has been active in opera, in concert music, and as a vocal recitalist. He has often appeared in recital at London's Wigmore Hall with pianist Malcolm Martineau and also abroad, at such venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and La Monnaie in Brussels. Among his repertory of parts in choral music are Bach's St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, which he has sung with various historically oriented ensembles, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. As an opera singer, Farnsworth has sung English works from Purcell onward but has tended to favor 20th century repertory, including several Britten works and new music. He has frequently appeared with the English National Opera and with other English companies, but also abroad with such companies as the Bergen National Opera in Norway. In 2019, Farnsworth was heard on the Resonus Classics label on the album Gerald Finzi: By Footpath and Stile. He returned in 2022 on the album Richard Causton: La Terra Impareggiabile on the NMC label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi