Robert Rice

One of the UK’s most versatile baritones, Robert Rice was a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge before gaining a DipRAM under Mark Wildman. His concert repertoire is extensive and varied: drawing on his experience in vocal consorts, he is often praised for his interpretations of the baroque masterworks; as a maturing singer he equally enjoys Verdi, Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

In recent seasons he has performed composers as varied as Humperdinck, at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Bach – St John Passion at the Southern Cathedrals Festival – and Howard Goodall in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral. His main specialism is in works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and he has been involved in premières of diverse new pieces throughout his career, those by Jacques Cohen, Paul Drayton, Errolyn Wallen and Hayley Jenkins being notable recent examples. His experience in performing contemporary music led to the creation of roles in stage works by Paul Clark, Judith Bingham and Nigel Osborne, whose Differences in Demolitions toured Bosnia Herzegovina and the UK. He made his debut at London’s South Bank as the title role in a staging of Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King.

Robert appeared in the staged recital Art Sung: Alma Mahler (Wilton’s Music Hall), and with pianist William Vann has regularly performed at York’s Late Music series, most recently celebrating Walter De la Mare with several premières. He has collaborated with guitarist Erich Schachtner in Germany and the UK on programmes of lieder and lute songs.

Robert’s solo recordings include Judas in Elgar’s The Apostles with Canterbury Choral Society and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and his version of Cornelius’ Die Drei Könige (The Three Kings), with the choir Polyphony, is a Christmas radio favourite. His latest CD, with William Vann, of 29 Songs by David Power, has been enthusiastically reviewed.

When not performing or recording, he leads workshops, adjudicates, and teaches widely, including for the National Youth Choir, Rodolfus Foundation Choral Courses, King’s, Clare and Jesus College Choirs in Cambridge, the choir of King’s College, London, and the London Symphony Chorus. Novello have published many of his vocal arrangements, while others are sung worldwide, and have been recorded, by the King’s Singers.

His nickname, Berty, has confused countless acquaintances, and he often tries to arrange his singing engagements around skiing trips to the Alps, while well aware that it should be the other way around.

May 2025

Photo credit: Ben McKee

www.robertrice.co.uk

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