Stefan Roberts is a countertenor choral scholar in the choir at York Minster where he sings daily services with the Minster Choir throughout the academic year, under the directorship of Robert Sharpe, as well as studying for a degree in History at the University of York. He was previously a choral scholar at Norwich Cathedral under David Lowe, studied singing at the Junior Royal Academy of Music, and was a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford under Bill Ives.
As well as having performed in concert as a soloist alongside the Britten Sinfonia with Paul Brough, the Tallis Chamber Choir, Fretwork, he has sung in the St Martin-in-the-Fields lunchtime concert series. He has also been broadcast as a soloist a number of times live on BBC Radio 3. In 2011, he recorded solos with Kate Bush on the second track of her latest album “50 Words for Snow” which met with widespread international acclaim. Other solo work includes Magdalen’s album of Byrd’s Second Service and Consort Anthems with Fretwork, alongside Rogers Covey-Crump.
As an ensemble singer Stefan has recorded very recently with the Minster Choir for a new CD expected towards the end of 2012. He sang on the internationally lauded “With a Merrie Noyse” with Magdalen College Choir, which was nominated for a Grammy™ Award in 2005, and with the Academy of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, the London Voices and the choristers of King’s College, Cambridge singing Sir Paul McCartney’s “Ecce Cor Meum” which won the 2006 Classical Brit Award for Best Album. He has featured in many other broadcasts, recordings and performances as an ensemble singer, including with the Berlin Philharmonic in “Deep Blue”, George Fenton’s soundtrack to the BBC film of its landmark series “The Blue Planet”, the BBC Prom of the Blue Planet, and on Magdalen’s CD of the works of internationally acclaimed composer Grayston Ives – the choir’s former director Bill Ives writing under a pseudonym – which includes his 1991 Canterbury Te Deum.
Stefan continues to work as an soloist and ensemble singer when his Minster schedule permits. He sings with the Rodolfus Choir under Ralph Allwood, with whom he toured the United States in April 2012, and York-based chamber choir Spectrum. Currently he is taught by David Lowe, professor at the Royal Northern College of Music, having previously learnt with Ashley Stafford, Rebecca Outram, Giles White, Robert Rice, Janette Ives and Margaret Humphrey Clark.
