Photo: Debbie Scanlon & Ben Cole
Representation: General Management
Ashley Riches is a Hazard Chase Young Associate Artist.
Ashley Riches is a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Previously he studied Opera at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and English at Cambridge University, where he was a member of the King’s College Chapel Choir under Stephen Cleobury.
In concert he has given performances of Mozart Requiem with David Hill and the Bach Choir in the Royal Festival Hall, Britten War Requiem with Jan Latham-Koenig and Novaya Opera, Moscow, Beethoven 9th Symphony and Brahms German Requiem with Stephen Cleobury, Fauré Requiem with Sir David Willcocks, Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs with John Rutter, Bach Cantatas with the AAM and Richard Egarr at the Wigmore Hall and Handel’s Israel in Egypt at Dartington with Jonathan Cohen. He has given song recitals at Barbican Hall, the City of London Festival, Chelsea Schubert Festival and Ludlow Festival and has recorded Poulenc Chansons Gaillardes with Graham Johnson for Hyperion.
Operatic appearances include the title roles in Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni, Marcello and Schaunard La Bohème, Aeneas Dido and Aeneas, Father Hansel and Gretel, Tarquinius The Rape of Lucretia, Sid Albert Herring, Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ibn-Hakia Iolanta and The Drunken Poet, Winter, Corydon and Sleep in The Fairy Queen with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort in Spitalfields, Madrid and Beaune. In November 2012 he made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden singing with Roberto Alagna in a Gala Concert and appeared as Salieri in Rimsky Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri with the Jette Parker Young Artists at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Covent Garden for which he received outstanding reviews in the National Press.
He recently sang several Handel arias for a David Starkey TV series “Music and Monarchy” with the AAM and Richard Egarr as well as Messiah in Symphony Hall, Birmingham and Beethoven Missa Solemnis conducted by Sir Roger Norrington.
Future plans include St John Passion recording with the AAM and Richard Egarr, Verdi Requiem in Winchester Cathedral and in the Royal Albert Hall, Belshazzar’s Feast in the Royal Festival Hall and Claudio Beatrice and Benedict with Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In May he will take part in the English Song Festival in Ludlow with Iain Burnside and in July will give a recital of Britten and Fauré at the Wigmore Hall.
Promoters please note: If you want to include this biography in concert programme etc, please contact Hazard Chase to ensure you receive the most up to date version.
Email: Camilla Wehmeyer
