ED BALLARD | BARITONE
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About Ed

​Ed studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Elena Gerhardt Lieder and Marjorie Thomas Song Prizes and was supported by Sybil Tutton Opera Awards and the International Opera Awards Foundation. 

Ed has a particular interest in contemporary opera with recent and forthcoming performances including creating the title role in Luke Styles Macbeth for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, Algernon Montcrief in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest for Nouvel Opéra Fribourg in Switzerland and Theatre l’Equilibre in Paris 
(currently available on OperaVision), Avenant in Philip Glass’ Die Schöne und Das Biest for Theater Koblenz (postponed due to Covid-19), cover Priest/Judge of the Dead in Harrison Birtwistle The Mask of Orpheus for English National Opera, Truffaldino in Jonathan Dove’s The Little Green Swallow for British Youth Opera and Ernest Shackleton in Shackleton's Cat by Russell Hepplewhite for English Touring Opera. He has also worked with the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme at Snape Maltings, most recently on the development of Joel Rust’s The Conifers, Jesse Jones The Raft and Robert Allan Reid’s Bermondsey, 1983.

His work in the classic operatic canon also includes the title role in the baritone version of Massenet’s Werther and cover Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro for English Touring Opera, Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon for Theater Freiburg, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream for Opera Zuid in Holland, cover Nick Shadow for Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Marcello in La Boheme ​for Vivo d'Arte and Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia for Royal Academy Opera. As a recitalist, he made his debut at the Wigmore Hall with the acclaimed Academy Song Circle.

On the concert platform, his recent and upcoming performances include Tippett's A Child of Our Time with the  Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Handel Israel in Egypt in the Herrenhausen Palace in Hannover with Capella St Crucis and La Festa Musicale, Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs with the Birmingham Bach Choir, Italian Cantatas with Sounds Baroque and with the London Handel Festival, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music in the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Messiah in St Paul’s Cathedral with St Paul's Cathedral Choir and in the Royal Albert Hall with Concerts from Scratch, and Bach Cantatas BWV 8, 32, 61, 62, 100, 157 and 201 as part of the Kohn Foundation/Royal Academy of Music Bach Cantata Series.
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Born in London, Ed began singing at the Temple Church and was a choral scholar in Clare College Choir and King’s College Choir in Cambridge, where he read History. He was a featured soloist on the 2009 BBC Television Broadcast of ‘Carols from King’s’.
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"a joy, as alert to words as to music as to stage action: another singer here from whom we shall surely hear more"
Mark Berry


"suitably and formidably athletic"

Opera

"displays excellent comic timing"
The Times

​"warm tones and superb phrasing ensure a performance bursting with dramatic richness"
Bachtrack

"turns in an outstanding performance of hyper naturalism, to the extent that one almost forgets it is singing, so conversational he sounds"
​The Opera Critic

"irrésistibles de drôlerie et impeccablement en voix"
Les Echos


"sly and charismatic"
Opera Now

"seductive and magnetic at all times"
Bachtrack

"chalumeau timbre, concentration and finesse"
Opera


"nous saluons les très beaux timbres à l'aptitude stratosphérique de Timur et d'Ed Ballard"
COMPTE-RENDU
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CONTACT: ed@edballard.co.uk
AGENCY CONTACT: Neill Thornborrow, thornborrow.agent@t-online.de
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