Voice
Stuart MacIntyre BA (Glasgow) FTCL LLCM(TD) was born in Hamilton and raised in a village near Strathaven in South Lanarkshire. He studied in his native Scotland under the tutelage of Andrew Doig, Patricia MacMahon and Hester Dickson before winning full scholarships to spend two summers studying the art-song repertoire with Martin Isepp at the Banff Centre in Canada: his studies in Canada were also assisted by the Scottish International Education Trust, the Prince’s Trust and the Cross Trust, and he remains grateful for this financial support. He concluded his formal education as a member of the Opera School at the Royal College of Music, where he studied singing with Norman Bailey CBE and where he also held the prestigious Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Scholarship, and won many prizes. He was also fortunate enough to have his studies at the RCM supported by a Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, which also awarded him a place on its recital scheme. He remains much obliged to these bodies for making possible his studies in London.
In a successful twenty-five-year career as a baritone soloist, he worked predominantly as a concert singer. This included solo appearances at the Cuenca, Salzburg, Cheltenham, Bath, Glyndebourne and Edinburgh International Festivals. He has also appeared several times as a soloist at the BBC Proms. He worked with many distinguished orchestras, including the Russian National Orchestra (Orff’s Carmina Burana on tour in Spain); the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon under Jean-Bernard Pommier); the City of London Sinfonia (as the English Clerk, in concert performances of Britten’s opera Death in Venice under Richard Hickox – also recorded for Chandos); the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Grieg’s incidental music to Peer Gynt under Manfred Honeck); the English Concert (Biber’s Missa Christi Resurgentis directed by Andrew Manze – also recorded for Harmonia Mundi USA); the BBC Symphony Orchestra (in the BBC Proms première of Weill’s Propheten under Matthias Bamert; Weill’s musical The Firebrand of Florence under Sir Andrew Davis – also recorded for Capriccio records; Stravinsky’s Canticum Sacrum at the Queen Elizabeth Hall under Jac van Steen; and in a studio recording of Delius’s one-act opera Margot la Rouge under David Lloyd-Jones); and the English Baroque Soloists (Bach’s Mass in B minor under Sir John Eliot Gardiner on tour in Japan and at the Barbican Centre in London). The many other distinguished conductors with whom he has appeared have also included Yan Pascal Tortelier, Martyn Brabbins, Sir Colin Davis, and Franz Welser-Möst. He worked particularly closely with Sir Stephen Cleobury, their many appearances together having included Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs for the Cambridge University Musical Society; as Jesus in the UK première of Francis Grier’s The Passion of Jesus of Nazareth (broadcast live on BBC Radio 3: “Stuart MacIntyre was a sonorous Christ” – Matthew Rye, Daily Telegraph); and singing the baritone arias/ as Pilate, in several annual Easter performances of both J S Bach Passions with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and the Academy of Ancient Music, in the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge. Also a keen recitalist and chamber music performer, he gave his London début recital at St John’s Smith Square accompanied by the pianist Simon Over, performing Loewe, Schubert and Schumann Lieder in a series curated by the pianist Malcolm Martineau. His Belgian recital début was at the La Monnaie opera house in Brussels, where he performed Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with the Canadian pianist Rachel Andrist. He performed Poulenc’s secular solo cantata Le bal masqué with the Hebrides Ensemble at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow (“…sung by that splendid baritone Stuart MacIntyre” – Conrad Wilson, writing in The Herald). He also performed Martinů’s The Opening of the Wells with the chamber music ensemble Endymion under Sir Stephen Cleobury in St Giles Cripplegate Church at the Barbican Centre, also broadcast live for BBC Radio 3 (“It was very beautifully sung by Stuart MacIntyre” – Andrew Porter, writing in The Observer).
Stuart MacIntyre passionately held a longstanding ambition to teach and he began teaching in earnest some twenty years ago, initially alongside his performing career. He now works solely as a singing teacher. Formerly, he taught choral scholars at Oxford University for six years and at Cambridge University for four years. He also accepted an invitation to join the teaching staff of the Royal Northern College of Music, where he taught for seven years and where he was much in demand as a singing teacher. For the RNCM, he devised, taught and co-examined courses in vocal pedagogy. To facilitate this work, he collaborated closely with senior medical staff at the Voice Clinic of Manchester Royal Infirmary. His past and present students have won places and entrance scholarships to several UK conservatoires. Some have also won distinguished awards and scholarships such as Sybil Tutton Opera Awards. He is particularly pleased that his students have won Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarships and Countess of Munster Musical Trust awards, since these estimable bodies also assisted his own studies. His students have also been cast in major début rôles by companies such as Scottish Opera and Opera North, and many of his students have also been understudies and chorus members at Glyndebourne. Whilst such student successes are certainly gratifying, Stuart MacIntyre’s main passion and goal as a teacher sincerely and strongly remains the fulfilment of his students’ potential chiefly for its own sake, particularly as performers. Currently, he also teaches singing at Selwyn College, Cambridge, in addition to his very busy private teaching practice in central London.
Stuart MacIntyre maintains a rigorous yet open-minded and enquiring approach to vocal technique, but he also proudly and very gratefully acknowledges the many years of ongoing mentoring he has received from the singing teacher Nicholas Powell.
