John Potter (musician)
Encyclopedia
Life
John Potter's musical education began as a chorister at King's College Cambridge, after which he became a scholar at The King's School, CanterburyThe King's School, Canterbury
The King's School is a British co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in the historic English cathedral city of Canterbury in Kent. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group....
and exhibitioner at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...
. His coaches included Lieder specialist Walter Gruner, accompanist Paul Hamburger
Paul Hamburger
Paul Hamburger was a British pianist, accompanist, chamber musician, and scholar.Paul Hamburger was born in Vienna in 1920, and studied at the Vienna State Academy before emigrating to England in 1939...
, and the tenor Peter Pears
Peter Pears
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin Britten....
.
He currently resides in York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
with his wife, Penny.
Performance
Potter specialises in earlyEarly music
Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...
and contemporary vocal music
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
. In addition to his solo work, he has performed with many acclaimed vocal ensembles including The Hilliard Ensemble, The Swingle Singers
The Swingle Singers
The Swingle Singers are a mostly a cappella vocal group formed in 1962 in Paris, France by Ward Swingle with Anne Germain, Jeanette Baucomont, Jean Cussac and others. Christiane Legrand, the sister of composer Michel Legrand, was the group's lead soprano through 1972. Until 2011 the group...
, The Dowland Project, the Gavin Bryars
Gavin Bryars
Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in, or has produced works in, a variety of styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, experimental music, avant-garde and neoclassicism.-Early life and career:Born in Goole, East...
Ensemble, and Red Byrd, of which he is a co-founder. His discography
Discography
Discography is the study and listing of the details concerning sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified musical genres...
includes over 100 recordings encompassing his eclectic musical interests including Leonin
Léonin
Léonin is the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum. He was probably French, probably lived and worked in Paris at the Notre Dame Cathedral and was the earliest member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style who is known by name...
and Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
. He has received a fifth gold disc for the Hilliard Ensemble's Officium
Officium (album)
Officium is an album by Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and early music vocal group, The Hilliard Ensemble, that was released in 1994....
album.
He is in high demand as an ensemble coach, mentoring groups such as Trio Mediæval
Trio Mediæval
Trio Mediæval is a vocal trio established in Oslo in 1997, recording albums for the ECM label, and touring frequently in Europe and the US.The trio was put together mainly to sing medieval polyphonic works, but has since early in their career expanded their repertoire to also include contemporary...
from Norway, The Kassiopeia Ensemble from the Netherlands, and Juice
Juice
Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue.Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fruit or vegetable flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree...
from the United Kingdom. His recent collaborations include Being Dufay with electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
composer Ambrose Field and the lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
nist and vihuela
Vihuela
Vihuela is a name given to two different guitar-like string instruments: one from 15th and 16th century Spain, usually with 12 paired strings, and the other, the Mexican vihuela, from 19th century Mexico with five strings and typically played in Mariachi bands.-History:The vihuela, as it was known...
player Ariel Abramovich.
Academic work
Potter is a readerReader (academic rank)
The title of Reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth nations like Australia and New Zealand denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship...
emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
for the Music Department at the University of York
University of York
The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
; before retirement he was the director of the Vocal Studies postgraduate program. His research interests include the sociology
Sociomusicology
Sociomusicology refers to both an academic subfield of sociology that is concerned with music , as well as a subfield of musicology that focuses on social aspects of musical behavior and the role of...
of vocal music
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
and vocal repertory, especially Renaissance
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
and contemporary music.
Publications
Potter is the author of numerous academic publications, including articles and his book Vocal Authority (Cambridge University PressCambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
). He edited The Cambridge Companion to Singing, also for Cambridge University Press.
In his book Tenor: History of a Voice, published by Yale University Press
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
, John Potter includes a unique Tenorography, which contains bibliographical and discographical/video information on several hundred tenors. Forthcoming publications include History of Singing written with Neil Sorrell, to be published by Cambridge University Press in January 2012.
External links
- John Potter's Homepage
- John Potter's Profile at the University of YorkUniversity of YorkThe University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
- Biography at Bach-Cantatas.com
- John Potter at Hyperion RecordsHyperion RecordsHyperion Records is an independent British classical record label.-History:The company was named after Hyperion, one of the Titans of Greek mythology. It was founded by George Edward Perry, widely known as "Ted", in 1980. Early LP releases included rarely recorded 20th century British music by...
- The Cambridge Companion to Singing at Google Books
- Tenor: History of a voice at (Yale University PressYale University PressYale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
)