Stephen Varcoe

Stephen Varcoe ranks among Britain’s most accomplished and esteemed classical baritones. His discography exceeds 150 entries, the majority devoted to song repertoire with a smaller but notable selection of operas, all emphasizing British composers. Born in 1949 in the Cornish town of Lostwithiel to a musical household, he grew up with a violinist father and a pianist mother whose home frequently hosted informal chamber-music evenings among friends. Piano lessons began for him at age six. Between the ages of eight and thirteen he attended Canterbury Cathedral School, where Allan Wicks served as his teacher, then continued at King’s School, Canterbury, ultimately setting the piano aside to concentrate on singing. After secondary school he read mathematics and law at King’s College, Cambridge, and earned a choral scholarship to the King’s College Choir under David Willcocks, receiving vocal tuition from John Carol Case and Wilfred Brown. Between 1970 and 1971 he pursued further studies in German and French song plus Baroque repertoire at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Arthur Reckless. With fellow choristers he founded the a cappella group known as the Scholars. Additional early engagements included BBC radio work and tours of Australia and New Zealand performing contemporary music under John Alldis. Victory in the 1977 Gulbekian competition supplied the first prize that launched his solo career, initially centered on Baroque song. In the early 1980s Varcoe sought to record songs by Gerald Finzi, yet several labels declined; Finzi’s widow subsequently invited him to make the recordings for Hyperion. That project inaugurated an enduring and prolific association with the label, yielding numerous releases of French song, English song, and lieder. During the 1990s he recorded Bach cantatas with John Eliot Gardiner and took part in the world premiere of Tavener’s opera Mary of Egypt. In 2000, collaborating with pianist Clifford Benson, he issued the two-volume set Stanford Songs to critical praise. An extended examination of the emotional and psychological dimensions of poetic texts within song followed, culminating in his 2009 PhD from the University of York on the topic of communication in song. As a teacher he conducts lectures, masterclasses, and workshops at universities and particularly values one-to-one coaching. Together with his wife he also organizes informal singing events at their farmhouse through the annual Summer Music at Ansells series.