Neil Baker
Professorial Staff - Voice
Music
Email: N.Baker@trinitylaban.ac.uk
Biography
Neil Baker studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he was the recipient of all the major song prizes. He continued his studies in London at the Royal College of Music and subsequently with Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.
Neil began his professional singing career in the Glyndebourne Festival chorus and went on to make his international operatic debut with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre in the role of Harald in Wagner’s Die Feen at the Châtelet Theatre, Paris. Other performances with Maestro Minkowski include Le nozze di Figaro at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Baden Baden and Tokyo. His many operatic roles include Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Araspe (Tolomeo), Melisso (Alcina), Escamillo (Carmen), Marco (Gianni Schicchi) and Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro).
Neil continued his collaboration with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, appearing in major venues around Europe including the Salle Pleyel (Paris), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), the Barbican (London), and Grenoble as a soloist in Purcell’s Hail Bright Cecilia, which culminated in a critically acclaimed performance at the Salzburg Festival. An accomplished concert performer, Neil’s notable appearances include Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Britten’s Cantata Misericordium at St John’s Smith Square, London, Mozart’s Requiem, which was performed throughout Portugal under the direction of Jaap ter Linden, and recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Teaching Experience
Alongside his performing career, in 2003 Neil began teaching fellow singers who sought his advice. He has since enjoyed a successful career as both a singer and a voice teacher, but his reputation as a voice teacher has grown so rapidly that he now devotes his time primarily to his teaching. Neil has acquired a formidable and important list of students both from the UK and abroad many of whom can be found performing on the world’s greatest stages: the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (London), The Metropolitan Opera (New York), La Scala, (Milan), Chicago Lyric Opera, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Opera Australia, Polish National Opera (Warsaw), La Monnaie (Brussels), Opera National de Paris, Opéra de Lille, the Staatsoper Berlin and the Bregenz Festival. While Neil enjoys his work with established and experienced singers, he also felt a desire to work with young singers at the beginning of their studies when the development of a strong technique is absolutely vital. In light of this, Neil became a member of the professorial staff at Trinity Laban in 2013.