biography

 

ALISTAIR BAMFORD (bass) studied in the UK and Canada, including at Southampton University, Dalhousie University, the Banff School of Fine Arts and Guildhall School of Music, and privately with Esther Salaman, Glenville Hargreaves and Paul Farrington. He has performed across Europe from Aberdeen to Zagreb as a recitalist, in oratorio, and with companies including English Festival Opera, European Chamber Opera, Carl Rosa, Lontano, Opera Lab, Pegasus Opera, Grange Park, the Royal Opera and in particular English National Opera. Roles have included Morales (Carmen), the Black Cat (L’Enfant et les Sortileges), Death (Savitri), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), Pish Tush (The Mikado), and multiple roles in the world premiere of Stockhausen’s opera Mittwoch aus Licht for Birmingham Opera as part of the Cultural Olympiad, and Chris Bowers-Broadbent’s crime thriller opera The Face.

Alistair has a commitment rooted in his own original research to English baroque song and contemporary music, ranging from a British Council tour based on the songs of Maurice Greene, to performances of avant garde pieces for solo voice in the UK, France, Holland and Spain. He has had several contemporary music ensembles including Gallery Group, Extraordinary Young Zebras, and a trio presenting new works and improvisations for voice/violin, dancer and flute with electronics. His recital programme of settings of James Joyce was developed in part with Joyce’s grandson Stephen J Joyce, and first given at London’s Southbank Centre and the National Concert Hall Dublin.

Favourite oratorio works as bass soloist include Bach’s St John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, the Brahms, Mozart and Faure Requiems, Haydn’s Creation and ‘Nelson’ Mass, and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. He has been soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana filmed for BBC2, and premiered David Lang’s Writing on Water, a collaboration involving three solo singers, the London Sinfonietta, film maker Peter Greenaway, and live calligraphy (released on CD in 2017). As a soloist his largest audience has been 75,000 football fans for a cup final. His first film appearance was in Thunderpants starring Simon Callow and Stephen Fry, he was a Russian singer in Channel 4’s The Great, and he appears in Pistol, Whirlwind, The Crown and other TV and film projects.

Choral recordings and performances include sessions with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and LSO (in which he was also a soloist), Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters, and Paul McCartney. Other choral highlights are concerts and a recording of Ligeti’s Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Proms with the BBC Singers and London Voices, performances at New York’s Lincoln Center of Kaija Saariaho’s Passion de Simone, and singing in the Chinese premieres of Britten’s War Requiem and Peter Grimes with London Voices and the Beijing Symphony Orchestra. He has sung on many major film soundtracks, such as The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. He has also sung as a lay clerk at Canterbury, Rochester and Ely Cathedrals.

In addition to performing Alistair has extensive experience as an improvisor and animateur, using both voice and violin. He has worked in community settings such as arts centres, schools, prisons and hospitals, for instance taking opera into London primary schools with Curious Opera Group to explore themes in La Boheme, Peter Grimes and Don Carlos. He has worked frequently with English National Ballet’s outreach programme, playing electric violin for dance workshops at festivals and residencies around the UK, and has returned recently to orchestral playing and chamber music including playing viola with the Craxton String Quartet.

Alistair was co-founder and former Associate Director of Music for Life, using improvisation with people with dementia, and training care staff and other musicians in this work. Following landmark programmes with the LSO and Philharmonia, Music for Life was adopted by the Wigmore Hall. He has taught voice at Cambridge and Canterbury Christchurch Universities, Trinity College of Music Junior Department and in schools, coached for Kent Youth Choirs, and currently teaches singing and piano at the New London Performing Arts Centre and privately. He is a Research Fellow for the Sidney de Haan Research Centre for Arts & Health; Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy; has undertaken consultancy work on music and wellbeing for organisations including Singing for the Brain, the Silver Song Club network and Choir of the Year Competition; and has been offered a PhD place and is an artist with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

In a previous career with the British Library Sound Archive he published works on recording, music, oral history and other disciplines. In part with support from Britten Pears Arts on a Creative Retreat, his first book of poetry, Pretty Creatures, was published in autumn 2021, he has an opera libretto based on 17th century writer Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World, and he is embarking on a new project exploring individual identity and choral singing.