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The English counter-tenor, Nathan Withers-Mercieca, started singing as a boy chorister in the London Oratory School Schola (Class of 2008), with whom he recorded the soundtracks to, among others, The Lord of The Rings and Finding Neverland. He went on to study at Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge (2009-2012), where he was Senior Choral Exhibitioner, and subsequently completed postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (September 2017-July 2018) with Theresa Goble.
Operatic roles include Peisander (cover) in Monteverdi The Return of Ulysses (Royal Opera House), “JL” in John Ramster’s staging of Handel’s Messiah (Merry Opera), Arsamene in Cavalli Xerse at the Grimeborn Festival (Ensemble OrQuesta), and Sorceress/Spirit in Purcell Dido and Aeneas (Armonico). A keen exponent of contemporary opera, he originated all the male roles in Clare Elton and Lila Palmer These Wondering Stones (Barbican Centre/Museum of London), Daryl/the Devil in Muelas+Ward A&E (Tête-à–Tête Festival), and workshopped the role of Yoël in Na’ama Zisser’s Mamzer/Bastard (Royal Opera House).
Nathan Mercieca He has appeared as a soloist at venues including the Wigmore Hall, LSO St. Luke’s, West Road Concert Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, the London Handel Festival, and the Aldeburgh Festival, working with groups such as Solomon’s Knot, the Irish Baroque Orchestra (Peter Whelan), and Wond’rous Machine (Joel Sandelson).
Much in demand as an ensemble singer, Nathan Mercieca has performed across Europe with - among others - Solomon's Knot (Director: Jonathan Sells), Le Concert d'Astrée (Director: Emmanuelle Haïm), Siglo de Oro, Sestina, the Southbank Sinfonia, and the Armonico Consort (Director: Christopher Monks). In addition, he is a member of Sacred Bones, a consort of vocal soloists and sackbuts, with whom he won the inaugural Brian Nesbit Early Music Competition at their debut performance in March 2018; he has appeared with them at the London International Festival of Early Music and the Barbican Centre’s ‘Sound Unbound’ festival. As a member of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal he is honoured to have sung at several State events of international importance, including most recently the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Engagements in the 2022-2023 season include a return with Solomon's Knot to the London International Festival of Early Music, as well as the Concertgebouw Bruges, and in a new solo-voices recording of the Motets by J.S. Bach & Johann Christoph Bach. He will also perform with the chorus of Le Concert d'Astrée under Emmanuelle Haïm in Barrie Kosky’s production of George Frideric Handel's Semele at the Opéra de Lille.
Equally accomplished as a musicologist, Nathan Mercieca holds a PhD in music from Royal Holloway, University of London (September 2013-March 2018; Thesis: Music, Writing, and Subjectivity: The Ethics of Musicology). He researches topics in the analysis and philosophy of music; his chapter ‘To Be in Time: Repetition, Temporality, and the Musical Work’ was published in The Oxford Handbook of Time in Music. He is currently writing his first monograph, Classical Music Performance and Online Culture, examining the effect of digital media, especially social media and YouTube, on the ontologies of Art Music performance. He supervises a number of historical and analytical topics at Cambridge University, and appears as a guest lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music in 2022. |
