Biography
One of the leading interpreters of Baroque opera and choral repertoire, Paul Agnew built an extensive performing career that encompassed music from numerous countries and historical eras. Midway through his professional life he also took up the baton, becoming the initial musician besides founder William Christie to direct the celebrated French ensemble Les Arts Florissants.
Born in Glasgow on April 11, 1964, Agnew studied at Oxford University’s Magdalen College as a choral scholar, combining academic work with regular appearances in the college’s renowned chapel choir. After completing his degree he entered a thriving London early-music community that offered abundant engagements for emerging vocalists. He participated in the Consort of Musicke and appeared at different times with The Sixteen, Gothic Voices, and The Tallis Scholars. Establishing himself as a soloist in the early 1990s, Agnew drew the notice of Christie, who invited him to relocate to France and join Les Arts Florissants. He quickly became the ensemble’s principal soloist, taking leading parts in productions such as Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie that toured throughout France and reached New York. Although trained as a tenor, Agnew also cultivated the high-register French haute-contre technique; while occasionally labeled a countertenor, the haute-contre he employed—rare among singers when he first assumed such roles in the 1990s—relies less on falsetto and produces a distinct timbre. Despite his close association with Les Arts Florissants, Agnew maintained an active English-language career that included songs by Ivor Gurney and, in 2001, Beethoven’s settings of British folk melodies. He further performed major choral compositions by Bach and others, and he recorded English songs with lute accompaniment alongside Christopher Wilson.
Agnew assumed the role of associate conductor with Les Arts Florissants in 2007, gradually increasing his podium duties until he was appointed joint music director. In 2018 he led the ensemble in a recording of rarely heard French Baroque motets by Sébastien de Brossard and Pierre Bouteiller. Christie continues as the group’s artistic director, yet Agnew has conducted it with growing frequency. He has extended its recorded activity beyond the French Baroque by launching projects devoted to the madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo during the 2010s and 2020s. The Gesualdo cycle reached completion in 2023 with releases of the composer’s Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals together with the Tenebrae Responsories.
Born in Glasgow on April 11, 1964, Agnew studied at Oxford University’s Magdalen College as a choral scholar, combining academic work with regular appearances in the college’s renowned chapel choir. After completing his degree he entered a thriving London early-music community that offered abundant engagements for emerging vocalists. He participated in the Consort of Musicke and appeared at different times with The Sixteen, Gothic Voices, and The Tallis Scholars. Establishing himself as a soloist in the early 1990s, Agnew drew the notice of Christie, who invited him to relocate to France and join Les Arts Florissants. He quickly became the ensemble’s principal soloist, taking leading parts in productions such as Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie that toured throughout France and reached New York. Although trained as a tenor, Agnew also cultivated the high-register French haute-contre technique; while occasionally labeled a countertenor, the haute-contre he employed—rare among singers when he first assumed such roles in the 1990s—relies less on falsetto and produces a distinct timbre. Despite his close association with Les Arts Florissants, Agnew maintained an active English-language career that included songs by Ivor Gurney and, in 2001, Beethoven’s settings of British folk melodies. He further performed major choral compositions by Bach and others, and he recorded English songs with lute accompaniment alongside Christopher Wilson.
Agnew assumed the role of associate conductor with Les Arts Florissants in 2007, gradually increasing his podium duties until he was appointed joint music director. In 2018 he led the ensemble in a recording of rarely heard French Baroque motets by Sébastien de Brossard and Pierre Bouteiller. Christie continues as the group’s artistic director, yet Agnew has conducted it with growing frequency. He has extended its recorded activity beyond the French Baroque by launching projects devoted to the madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo during the 2010s and 2020s. The Gesualdo cycle reached completion in 2023 with releases of the composer’s Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals together with the Tenebrae Responsories.
Albums
