Jonathan Sells studied Music and Musicology at Cambridge University and on the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, supported by Serena Fenwick and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.

Spotted by William Christie for Le Jardin des Voix, Jonathan Sells has worked as a soloist with Les Arts Florissants at the Barbican Hall, Palais Garnier - Opéra de Paris, Teatro Real, Madrid, La Chapelle Royale at Versailles, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, New York. He also performs with I Fagiolini, notably in the 2008 BBC Chamber Music Proms, and has recorded Plutone in Monteverdi’s Il ballo dell’ingrate with them for Chandos.

Jonathan Sells began his career singing the bass repertoire and performed Il Commendatore Don Giovanni under Richard Egarr at Snape Maltings in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Sarastro, Second Armed Man The Magic Flute at the GSMD, Trulove The Rake’s Progress with Cambridge University Opera Society and Zaretsky Eugene Onegin for British Youth Opera.

As a baritone, Jonathan Sells’s operatic experience includes Pastore IV & Spirio III L’Orfeo with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Leporello Don Giovanni at the Verbier Festival Academy, Sleep and Mopsa The Fairy Queen at Académie Européenne de Musique at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Mr Lively & Notary Paisiello’s The Barber of Seville at the Buxton Festival, Rambaldo La Rondine for BYO, Der Mann in Hindemith’s Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen at St James’s Piccadilly. His repertoire also includes Maximillian Candide, Noye Noye’s Fludde Count Almaviva The Marriage of Figaro, Jupiter Orpheus in the Underworld, Huascar Les Indes Galantes and Laroche Capriccio.

Also at the Guildhall School, Jonathan Sells recently sang Calender in Gluck’s La Recontre Imprévue, Prime Minister The King Goes Forth to France (Sallinen), Slook La cambiale di matrimonio (Rossini) and Ivan The Marriage (Martinu).

Jonathan Sells is a Britten-Pears Young Artist, and was invited to Wigmore Hall to take part in the International Song Competition. Most recently he received the Prix Thierry Mermod for singers at the 2009 Verbier Festival for his performance of Leporello Don Giovanni.

Jonathan Sells recordings include the roles of IV Pastore/III Spirito infernale on a DVD of Monteverdi’s Orfeo with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants on the Dynamic DVD label, and the role of Plutone in Monteverdi’s Ballo dell’Ingrate with I Fagiolini on the Chandos Chaconnne label.

Jonathan Sells is a regular recitalist, recently performing Winterreise in the Chelsea Schubert Festival, Strauss in the Barbican Hall and lieder at the Leeds Lieder Festival accompanied by Julius Drake. He has won the 2009 Guildhall Wigmore Hall Recital Prize and will give a lieder recital at the Wigmore Hall in March 2010.

Jonathan Sells recently joined Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir as a soloist in Bach Cantatas : Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 130 and Es erhub sich ein Streit, BWV 19 at the Edinburgh Festival and in Handel’s Israel in Egypt. Other recent engagements include Herault/Apollon/Bass Coryphee Alceste (Gluck) with Chelsea Opera Group at the Cadogan Hall a solo Messiah tour with European Union Baroque Orchestra and Edward Higginbottom, and a solo Bach Christmas Oratorio tour with the Israel Camerata and Timothy Brown.

Jonathan Sells recently made his debut in recital in London’s Wigmore Hall as winner of the Guildhall School Recital Prize.

Future plans include further tours with the Monteverdi Choir and Dandini La Cenerentola for Iford Festival.

 

In Autumn 2010 Jonathan Sells becomes a member of the Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House.