Michael Chance has established a worldwide reputation as one of the foremost exponents of the male alto voice in all areas of the classical repertoire, and is in equal demand as an opera, concert and recording artist. His appearances in oratorio and recital have taken him to concert halls all over the world including Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Neue Gewandhaus, Berlin’s Philharmonie and London’s Wigmore Hall with a variety of programmes, ranging from Elizabethan lute songs to new works, with many world premieres commissioned especially for him including works by Bennett, Goehr, Tavener, Costello, Barber, Cowdrey and Beamish.
Recent and future engagements include performances at the Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, St John’s Smith Square, the Concertgebouw and with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Handel’s Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music and at Wells Cathedral, Bach B Minor Mass with the Vasari Singers and at Wimbledon Music Festival, European tours of St John Passion and Easter Oratorio with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Britten Canticles in Santiago and Antwerp, Haydn Nelson Mass at the Tonhalle Zurich, Haydn’s Il mondo della luna in Lisbon, St Matthew Passion with Bristol Bach Choir and Aberdeen Bach Choir, St John Passion with Beethoven Orchester Bonn, recitals at Festival International d’Orgue de Fribourg and in Oxford, Cambridge, Bonn and Padua as well as a the title role in Gluck’s Orfeo for the 2014 Buxton Festival. He has regularly led masterclasses for the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh.
He has recorded extensively, receiving a Grammy award for his participation in Handel’s Semele for Deutsche Grammophon. He was awarded the CBE in 2009.
Michael Chance is Artistic Director of The Grange Festival which launched to great critical acclaim in summer 2017 and continues to flourish.