Twelfth Night Ensemble
Nola Richardson, soprano
Roderick Williams OBE, baritone
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759): Cantata Apollo e Dafne, HWV 122
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Based in NYC, Twelfth Night is an ensemble of historical performance specialists led by David Belkovski and Rachell Ellen Wong, formed with the firm belief that art is best explored as a meeting place of the past, present, and future. Twelfth Night projects and engagements range from small chamber music (2-5 musicians) to larger orchestral and operatic productions.
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." – L. P. Hartley
Inspired by Shakespeare’s play of the same name, the ensemble strives to invoke a spirit of boundless revelry, celebration, and community in their programming. The two co-founders are regarded as key young representatives of early music: Rachell is the only baroque artist to receive an Avery Fisher Career Grant and David is the only recipient in the field of early music to receive the Levinson Arts Achievement Award. In the 2022-2023 season, Twelfth Night will be hosted in concert series across the country, including Arizona Early Music, Chatham Baroque, Music Before 1800, and Apex Concert Series in Reno. Twelfth Night’s upcoming video release with renowned French soprano Julie Roset explores secular and sacred 17th-century Italian songs. Further collaborations include recordings with Australian mezzo-soprano Xenia Puskarz Thomas and a full orchestral Mozart project in New York.
Our Vision
Historical Performance study provides musicians today with a window into the past, reminding us all of the boundless creative energy that led to deeply human musical works. Some of those works are familiar and beloved, some are less well-known and deserve renewed, loving attention. Even still, the influence of the present is to be welcomed. Artists today grew up with an appreciation of an inexhaustibly rich and diverse music world. Modern genres and forms inevitably affect our taste and performance habits, imbuing study of the past with the exciting, bold colors of the current. To create today, however, is to look forward, to understand how the artist is situated in society, and whether that position ought to change. Like creations of the past, art today can be healing, political, or provocative – often at the same time. Although an early music ensemble by trade, Twelfth Night's vision is toward the future, which these days seems to be equal parts uncertain and exciting. Our music breathes with the admiration we have for history and the unabashed love for the art world today.
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Making her mark as an "especially impressive" (The New York Times) soprano, Australian/American Nola Richardson has won First Prize in all three major American competitions focused on the music of J.S. Bach (Bethlehem Bach, 2016; Audrey Rooney Bach, 2018; Grand Rapids Symphony Linn Maxwell Keller Award, 2019). These honors have catapulted her to the forefront of Baroque ensembles and orchestras around the country, where she has been praised for her "astonishing balance and accuracy,” “crystalline diction,” and “natural-sounding ease” (Washington Post).
In concert, Nola’s repertoire ranges from medieval to contemporary works – including several world premieres — and she has been particularly noted for her interpretations of Bach, Handel, and Mozart. Recent seasons have featured her debuts with the Pittsburgh, Seattle, Kansas City, Helena, and Colorado Symphonies in performances of Handel’s Messiah in which she was described as “agile and crystalline-voiced…a stand-out” (Seattle Times). Messiah was also the vehicle for her acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut with Musica Sacra under conductor Kent Tritle. She has performed Mozart's Exultate Jubilate with Grand Rapids Symphony, a Sondheim review with the Boston Pops, Haydn’s Creation with the Akron Symphony, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Portland Symphony and Musica Angelica and numerous works of Bach with the Baltimore Symphony and the American Classical Orchestra among others. Her debut in Bach’s Coffee Cantata with Philharmonia Baroque was noted for her “graceful ebullience” (San Francisco Chronicle) and performances in Handel’s La Resurrezione and a program of French Baroque music with the American Bach Soloists drew praise for her “lusciously polished…exemplary impassioned singing” (San Francisco Classical Voice).
Past operatic highlights include Nola’s debut at the Kennedy Center with Opera Lafayette (Fraarte in Handel Radamisto) which drew praise for her “particularly appealing freshness and directness” (Washington Post), and a “standout” performance (Opera News) as the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with the Clarion Music Society. Recently she has interpreted the role of Apolo in a rare performance of the Baroque Zarzuela Apolo e Dafne by Sebastián Durón. She made her debut with the Boston Early Music Festival in the summer of 2023 performing in Desmarest’s Circé and as Oreste Nunzia in Francesca Caccini’s Alcina.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Richardson took part in a wide variety of virtual projects including appearances with the Atlanta Symphony in a documentary, “In the Key of Bach” led by Robert Spano, solo concerts with Musica Angelica and the Colorado Bach Ensemble, and programs with the National Cathedral, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Seraphic Fire, and Voices of Ascension. In addition to these video productions, her discography includes recent recordings with the Cantata Collective (Bach St. John Passion), the Baltimore Choral Arts (Mozart Requiem), the Boston Early Music Festival (Desmarest Circé), and the Clarion Choir (Rachamaninoff Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).
In addition to her work in the concert, opera, and early music realms, Nola is also a devoted chamber musician and has performed, toured, and recorded with Grammy nominated ensembles Seraphic Fire, Clarion, Musica Sacra, and Trinity Wall Street. Recently, she has appeared as the soprano soloist for world premieres of choral works by Garth Neustadter, Frank La Rocca, and Wayne Oquin and taken part in additional premieres by David Lang, Hannah Lash, and David Briggs. She was a soloist in the debut performance of Michael Gandolfi’s Carroll in Numberland alongside soprano Dawn Upshaw at Tanglewood, and the dedicatee of Katherine Balch’s these intervals matter.
Nola is the first and only soprano to receive the prestigious DMA degree in Early Music Voice from Yale. Her upcoming season will include performances of Messiah at St. Thomas Church in NYC and with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Pacific Symphony; Mozart Exsultate Jubilate with Voices of Music; Bach B Minor Mass at Alice Tully Hall with the American Classical Orchestra; a return to Carnegie Hall with Musica Sacra in Handel Samson; and return appearances with Bach in Bethlehem; the Aspect Chamber Series; Seraphic Fire; Ars Lyrica Houston; and the Cantata Collective.
An Australian by birth, Nola has spent most of her life in the US. She holds a BM from Illinois Wesleyan University and dual MM degrees in Vocal Performance and Early Music from the Peabody Conservatory. She was a young artist with the Boston Early Music Festival, a vocal fellow at Tanglewood, a Marc and Eva Stern Fellow at Songfest, and most recently, a Carmel Bach Festival Virginia Best Adams Fellow in 2019. Nola attended the Institute of Sacred Music Program and in May of 2020 she was the first and only female singer to receive the prestigious DMA degree in Early Music Voice from Yale.
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Roderick Williams is one of the UK’s most sought-after baritones and is constantly in demand on the concert platform and in recital, encompassing repertoire from the baroque to world premieres.
Opera engagements have included major roles at leading opera houses worldwide including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Dallas Opera, the Bregenz Festival and Oper Köln. He has been involved in many world premieres such as Alexander Knaifel’s Alice in Wonderland, several operas by Michel van der Aa, the title role in Robert Saxton’s The Wandering Jew, and the UK premiere of Sally Beamish’s Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment.
Recent operatic engagements include Oronte in Charpentier’s Medée, Toby Kramer in van der Aa’s Sunken Garden, Don Alfonso / Cosi fan Tutte and Sharpless / Madam Butterfly for English National Opera, the title role in Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera, the title role in Billy Budd for Opera North, van der Aa’s After Life at Melbourne State Theatre and at Opera de Lyon, and van de Aa’s Upload for Dutch National Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Oper Köln and at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. He has also appeared as Papageno and as Ulisse / Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria for the Royal Opera House, Toby Kramer for Dallas Opera, and Christus / St John Passion in staged performances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, both under Sir Simon Rattle. In 2023 he sang Germont in La Traviata at the St Endellion Festival and recorded the role for a new film by Opera Glassworks in 2023/24.
Recent and future concert engagements include performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen, The King’s Consort, Le Concert Spirituel, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, RIAS Kammerchor, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bayerische Rundfunk, San Francisco Symphony, Music of the Baroque Chicago, New York Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Sao Paulo Symphony, Bach Collegium Japan, and Singapore Symphony. He is a regular performer at the BBC Proms, featuring as the soloist in the Last Night in 2014, and most recently appearing in the St Matthew Passion in 2021, and the world premiere of Matthew Kaner’s ‘Pearl’ in 2022. This season’s engagements include tours of Japan with the BBC SO, of Europe with the RIAS Kammerchor, and of North America with Bach Collegium Japan.
He is an accomplished recital artist who can be heard regularly at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, LSO St Luke’s, the Perth Concert Hall, Ludlow Song Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Howard Assembly Room in Leeds, Bath International Festival, Three Choirs Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, the Concertgebouw and the Musikverein. In 2019 he performed all three Schubert cycles at Wigmore Hall. His recital programmes often feature repertoire by British composers, including many new works. He appears frequently on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 as both performer and presenter.
His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for Chandos, and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos. Other recent recordings include an award-winning disc of French song with Roger Vignoles for Champs Hill Records, the three Schubert Cycles with Iain Burnside for Chandos, and recordings of Stanford and Somervell with Susie Allan for Somm. He has also recorded Schubert’s Winter Journey in a new translation by Jeremy Samms with Christopher Glynn for Signum. He sang Captain Balstrode / Peter Grimes with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos (Gramophone Recording of the Year 2021). Most recently he recorded his own arrangement of Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad and other English repertoire with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder, also for Chandos.
He is an established composer and has recently taken up the role of Composer in Association of the BBC Singers. Commissions include a major work, World without End, for the RIAS Kammerchor and BBC Singers, as well as a commission to celebrate the centenary of the RAF. He was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder + in April 2016 and Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 2020-2022. Currently he is ‘singer-in-residence’ for Music in the Round in Sheffield, presenting concerts and leading on dynamic and innovative learning and participation projects that introduce amateur singers, young and old, to performing classical song repertoire. In 2023 he is Artistic Director of the St Endellion Summer Festival, and Artist in Residence at the Aldeburgh Festival.
In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the Year award, and in June 2017 was awarded an OBE for services to music. He also performed at the Coronation of King Charles III in 2023.