Stephan MacLeod is a Swiss bass and conductor focused on

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...

historically informed performance Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of Western classical music, classical music, which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of ...

who has performed internationally. He was first bass of the

Huelgas Ensemble The Huelgas Ensemble is a Belgian early music group formed by the Flemish conductor Paul Van Nevel in 1971. The group's performance and extensive discography focuses on Renaissance polyphony. The name of the ensemble refers to a manuscript of poly ...

for five years and took part in the complete recording of Bach's cantatas by

Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for whi ...

and the

Bach Collegium Japan Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ) is composed of an orchestra and a chorus specializing in Baroque music, playing on period instruments. It was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki with the purpose of introducing Japanese audiences to European Baroque music ...

as both a soloist and a choir member. He founded his own ensemble,

Gli Angeli Genève Gli Angeli Genève is a Baroque ensemble based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 2005 by the bass-baritone, Stephan MacLeod, their debut performance was at the Festival Amadeus de Meinier. The ensemble performs an annual season of four concerts ...

, and has also been professor of singing at the

Lausanne Conservatory The Haute école de musique de Lausanne (HEMU, known as Institute of Advanced Musical Studies prior to 2010, founded in 1861 as Conservatoire de Lausanne) is a Swiss music school located in Romandy, the French-speaking western part of Switzerland. ...

Career

MacLeod was born in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

. He first studied piano and violin, then voice in his hometown, then at the

Musikhochschule Köln A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

with

Kurt Moll Kurt Moll (11 April 19385 March 2017) was a German operatic bass singer who enjoyed an international career and was widely recorded. His voice was notable for its range, a true basso profondo, including full, resonant low and very-low notes wi ...

, and in Lausanne, with Gary Magby. In Cologne, he became interested in

and collaborated with

Reinhard Goebel Reinhard Goebel (; born 31 July 1952 in Siegen, West Germany) is a German Conducting, conductor and baroque violin, violinist specialising in early music on Historically informed performance, authentic instruments and professor for historical perf ...

and his

Musica Antiqua Köln Musica Antiqua Köln was an early music group that was founded in 1973 by Reinhard Goebel and fellow students from the Conservatory of Music in Cologne. Musica Antiqua Köln devoted itself largely to the performance of the music of the 17th and 18th ...

. He was first bass of the

for five years. He worked further with

Philippe Herreweghe Philippe Maria François Herreweghe, Knight Herreweghe (born 2 May 1947) is a Belgian conductor and choirmaster. Herreweghe founded La Chapelle Royale and Collegium Vocale Gent and is renowned as a conductor, with a repertoire ranging from Rena ...

Gustav Leonhardt Gustav Maria Leonhardt (30 May 1928 – 16 January 2012) was a Dutch keyboardist, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement to perform music on period instruments. Leo ...

Jordi Savall Jordi Savall i Bernadet (; born 1 August 1941) is a Spanish conductor, composer and viol player. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for popularizing the viol family of ...

, and others. He appeared in Europe and beyond. He founded the ensemble

of voices and instruments in 2005, singing and directing the group. Their first CD was in 2008 named Editor's Choice by

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

. He has been professor of singing at the Haute Ecole de Musique of Lausanne from 2013.

Recordings

MacLeod made over 75 CDs. He took part in the complete recording of Bach's cantatas by

and the

as both a soloist and a choir member. For the first CD of Gli Angeli Genève, he chose Baroque German cantatas by Buxtehude, Bruhns, Telemann and finally Bach's ''Ich habe genug'', BWV 82. Their 2021 recording of Bach's

Mass in B minor The Mass in B minor (), BWV 232, is an extended setting of the Mass ordinary by Johann Sebastian Bach. The composition was completed in 1749, the year before the composer's death, and was to a large extent based on earlier work, such as a Sanctu ...

, with ten singers and 27 instrumentalists, was described by a reviewer from

as "characterised by swift momentum, crisp articulation and benevolent attention to detail".

References

External links

*
Stephan MacLeod / bass
operabase.com

Bach Cantatas Website 2005
Stephan MacLeod
(management) sorekartists.com 2022 {{DEFAULTSORT:MacLeod, Stephan Swiss baritones Living people 1971 births 21st-century Swiss singers Musicians from Geneva Academic staff of Lausanne Conservatory