Alex Ashworth
Artist Reviews
"No City of London Festival is complete without some spectacular in St Paul’s Cathedral, though its acoustic can easily turn whatever is performed into the equivalent of mushy peas. What a pleasant shock, then, when the first sung note in Monteverdi’s Vespers rang out like a rifle shot, one piercing enough to have felled those British worthies of land and sea, memorialised in marble all around. This opening blast from Alexander Ashworth’s bass-baritone set the tone of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s presentation. Forthright clarity. Practised skill. Echo be damned."
"A strong bass delivered splendid recitatives –Alex Ashworth certainly entered into Handel’s spirited account of God’s wrath, darkness and fire – eventually being joined by Jonathan Holland’s sparkling triumphant trumpet."
"I can’t recall hearing Alex Ashworth before. I was impressed. He seemed ideal for the role of Christus. Tall and dignified in bearing, he invested his music with dignity. His tone was evenly produced and fell very pleasingly on the ear. He also enunciated the text extremely well. I liked the range of colours he deployed and also the imagination he brought to the role. The poignant dignity and vocal colouring that he brought to the passage where the dying Christ entrusts his mother to the care of St. John made this a very moving moment."
"...in the Quoniam, for instance, exceptional horn player Anneke Scott stood shoulder to shoulder with heroic Bass Alex Ashworth in a totally equal partnership."
Alexander Ashworth, however, brought such security and dramatic conviction to the role that any sense of him as a substitute was forgotten. His physical stature – towering over all the rest of the cast – gave a real pathos to his portrayal of Wozzeck as an overgrown man-child.
"...The singers were individually often a joy – bass Alex Ashworth’s duetting with bassoonist Inga Maria Klaucke in “For he that is mighty” is still resounding in my ear... "
Biography
Bass-baritone Alex Ashworth is a concert and opera singer working across Europe and the United Kingdom. He began singing at Lichfield Cathedral, continued as a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, and then studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
His recordings include Œdipus Rex, Stravinsky, with the London Symphony Orchestra, Monteverdi’s Vespers with both the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Monteverdi Choir, Bach’s B Minor Mass, St Matthew Passion and St John Passion for Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, and Bach’s Magnificat with Solomon’s Knot (“if one could bottle gravitas, this would be it” – Gramophone Magazine). On Deutsche Grammophon’s Stage Plus, Alex is La Père du Famille in Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ, and also sings Bach’s Actus Tragicus and Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien.
Recent performance highlights include performances of Bach’s B Minor Mass and Handel’s L’allegro, Il peneroso ed il Moderato across Europe and North America, including at New York’s Carnegie Hall. (“Ashworth was buttery in the Bach, commanding in the Handel” – New York Times). With Solomon’s Knot, he sang the role of Haman in Handel’s Esther at London’s Wigmore Hall (“sterling singing” – The Times), Monteverdi’s Vespers in Helsinki, and Bach’s Motets in Canada. Alex also performed at the Coronation of King Charles III.
Performances later in 2025 include Bach’s Trauerode and a reconstruction of his Köthener Trauermusik at the Bachfest in Leipzig, and at London’s Wigmore Hall. Alex also sings Fauré’s Requiem at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford, Handel’s Messiah with the CBSO in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht in Poland, Austria, Italy and Luxembourg, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Zurich.
Alex is a Professor of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He lives in East London with his wife and four children.
May 2025
Please scroll down for Oratorio repertoire:
| Oratorio and concert rep | |
| Composer | Work |
| Bach | B Minor Mass |
| Christmas Oratorio | |
| St John Passion | |
| St Matthew Passion | |
| Brahms | Requiem |
| Handel | Acis and Galatea |
| Alexander’s Feast | |
| Dixit Dominus | |
| Dettingen Te Deum | |
| Messiah | |
| Jephta | |
| Samson | |
| Haydn | All masses |
| Mendelssohn | Elijah |
| St Paul | |
| Monteverdi | Vespers |
| Mozart | C Minor Mass |
| Requiem | |
| Vespers | |
| Orff | Carmina Burana |
| Purcell | Dido and Aeneas |
| Ode on St Cecilia’s Day | |
| Rossini | Petite Messe Solenelle |
| Stabat Mater | |
| Vaughan Williams | Dona Nobis Pacem |
| Hodie | |
| Fantasia on Christmas Carols | |
| Five Mystical Songs | |
| Sea Symphony | |
| Verdi | Requiem |