Biography Page 2/3 Back
He has worked on the concert platform with Solti, Giulini, Haitink, Oramo, Slatkin,
Rhozhdestvensky, Dutoit, Frühbeck de Burgos, Elder and Abbado, and is particularly
associated with Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Verdi’s Requiem ,
Mahler’s 8th Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem and
Schmidt’s Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (Book of Seven Seals).
This year Justin was invited to sing Verdi's Requiem for the final concert of the 300th Anniversary Season of the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford Cathedral, the world's oldest music festival.
In 2006 he sang Gerontius at the Berlin Festival and recorded it with the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on a CD released for the Elgar
150th anniversary celebrations in 2007. This recording was the Editor’s
Choice in Gramophone magazine: Alan Blyth wrote, “The best modern
Gerontius… Justin Lavender surpasses all recent interpreters.”
Justin’s other recordings include solo CDs with the Bournemouth Symphony
of Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti arias as well as leading roles such as Arturo
in Bellini’s Puritani, Fernand in Donizetti’s La Favorite, Mark in
Smyth’s The Wreckers, Pierre Bezuhov in Prokofiev’s War and Peace,
Schnittke’s Faust Cantata with the Hamburg Symphon and Janáček’s
Otčenáš (The Lord’s Prayer). He appeared in Alan Parker’s
film The Life of David Gale, on general release and DVD.
Continue to page 3