Guy James, countertenor
Alasdair Austin, countertenor
Joseph Wicks, tenor
Josh Cooter, tenor
Michael Craddock, baritone
Owain Park, director and bass

The Gesualdo Six is an award-winning British vocal ensemble comprising some of the UK’s finest consort singers, directed by Owain Park. Praised for their imaginative programming and impeccable blend, the ensemble formed in 2014 for a performance of Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories in Cambridge and has gone on to perform at numerous major festivals across the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

Notable highlights include a concert in the distinguished Deutschlandradio Debut Series, performances at renowned venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Miller Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, and their debut at the BBC Proms in 2023. Celebrating their 10th anniversary in 2024, the group will tour venues in South America, Japan, China
and Hong Kong for the first time. The ensemble have collaborated with Fretwork, the Brodsky Quartet, and Matilda Lloyd, and tour a work of concert-theatre titled Secret Byrd with Director, Bill Barclay.

The Gesualdo Six is committed to music education, regularly hosting workshops for young
musicians and composers. The ensemble have curated two Composition Competitions, with the most recent edition drawing entries from over three hundred composers worldwide. The group recently commissioned new works from Shruthi Rajasekar and Joanna Marsh, alongside coronasolfège for 6 by Héloïse Werner.

The ensemble have harnessed the power of social media to make classical music accessible to millions worldwide, creating captivating videos from beautiful locations while on tour. The group released their debut recording English Motets on Hyperion Records in early 2018 to critical acclaim, followed by six further albums (Christmas, Fading, Josquin’s Legacy,
Tenebrae Responsories, Lux Aeterna, and William Byrd’s Mass for five voices), and most recently, Morning Star.

Director, writer, and composer Bill Barclay has created dozens of theatrical concerts with the world’s most prominent ensembles. He is Artistic Director of Concert Theatre Works and Music Before 1800, NYC’s oldest early music presenter, and was Director of Music at Shakespeare’s Globe from 2012-2019.

A “personable polymath” (London Times), Barclay’s original works have been described as “witty and incisive” (New York Times), “quietly transfixing” (The New Yorker), and “quite simply exquisite” (The Guardian). Venues include The Hollywood Bowl, The Kennedy Center, The Royal Albert Hall, Buckingham Palace, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Barbican, Washington National Cathedral, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and The Southbank Centre. Broadway and West End credits include Farinelli and the King, Twelfth Night, and Richard III all starring Sir Mark Rylance.

Major tours include The Chevalier (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, 8 others); Secret Byrd for The Gesualdo Six and Fretwork (20 cities on tour); Anthony & Cleopatra (LA Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra and others); and Peer Gynt (Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras). He has been commissioned five times by The Boston Symphony Orchestra, appearing across eight seasons.

Other projects include directing the Silkroad Ensemble on tour, Beyond Beethoven 9 for Marin Alsop, A Midsummer Nights Dream for Andris Nelsons, L’Histoire du Soldat for Charles Dutoit, Four Seasons Reimagined for Max Richter and puppeteers Gyre & Gimble, and 1791: Mozart’s Last Year for Gianandrea Noseda and The National Symphony Orchestra.

As a composer, Barclay composed the historic Hamlet Globe-to-Globe which toured to 189 countries, and Call of the Wild that performed in 42 US states. He has composed three times for the British Royal Family, for President Obama, for the Olympic Torch, at the United Nations, and in refugee camps in Jordan and Calais.

His newest work Letters to a Young Poet lately premiered with The Brodsky Quartet at The Aldeburgh Festival and tours in 2025. He regularly appears in major international festivals: Tanglewood, Spoleto, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Lammermuir, Latitude, Death of Classical, Oxford, Teatro a Mil, Canterbury, and many others.

Barclay has been published on the music of Shakespeare by both Cambridge and Oxford University Presses, and edited The Jon Lipsky Play Anthology for Smith & Kraus. A contributor to the Guardian and Songlines, he has lectured on the Music of the Spheres on three continents.

A noted curator, he created the Candlelit Concerts series from the launch of London’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2014, partnering with The Royal Opera House and BBC Proms. He founded the label Globe Music, recognised by The Royal Philharmonic Society, for Shakespeare’s Globe where he produced music for 130 productions and 150 concerts over seven years. He currently programs Music Before 1800, “Gotham’s flagship music presenter” (The New Yorker).

His single Let Nature Sing, made of birdsong with singer Sam Lee, debuted at #11 on the UK Pop Charts to support The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Appearances on the podium include King of Ghosts on tour with Soumik Datta and City of London Sinfonia, and conducting the USACH Orchestra on tour in Chile.

He has collaborated with soloists Yo-Yo Ma, John Williams, Ian Bostridge, Anoushka Shankar and Alison Balson, and dozens of the world’s most prominent conductors including Dame Jane Glover, Louis Langree, Bramwell Tovey, JoAnn Falletta, Sakari Oramo, and Trevor Pinnock.

A lauded actor, Barclay received a Fox Foundation Fellowship, the largest grant for actors in the US. A Boston native and past acting company member at Shakespeare & Company (11 years), the Actors Shakespeare Project (10 years, Artistic Associate), and The Mercury Theatre (UK), he trained in Bali, The National Theatre Institute and Vassar College. MFA in Playwriting, Boston University.

Carlos Diaz Stoop (he/him/his) is thrilled to be Executive Producer at Concert Theatre Works. He was previously employed as General Manager at CTW, and before that as an Associate Producer at Beth Morrison Projects.  In 2023 he became the Director of Administration of BMP: Producer Academy – an 8-week nuts and bolts course designed to prepare the next generation of Creative Producers. Prior to these roles, he served as Program Associate at The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, a multi-disciplinary grantmaker in the arts in Philadelphia, where he supported the Performance program, cross-program functions, and served as the coordinator and founding member of the Center’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee.

As an Artist Advocate and Independent Creative Producer Carlos supports theatre, music, dance, opera, community engagement, and social justice projects with various organizations and individual artists along the East Coast including: Girard College (Be Holding), Philadelphia Contemporary (Convalescence), Raja Feather Kelly, Yarn/Wire, Tyshawn Sorey, Ross Gay, Kimberly Bartosik/Daela, Brian Freeland.

Carlos is also a member of CIPA (The Creative Independent Producer Alliance), a group of over 300 Independent Creative Producers worldwide where he served as the inaugural Operations Leader from 2023-2024 aiding in the oversight and strategic planning of CIPA’s continued growth as a hub for Community, Mentorship, and Advocacy for Independent Creative Producers in the performing arts sector.

Carlos holds an M.S. in Arts Administration from Drexel University and a B.A. in Theatre Arts from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and lives in Richmond, Virginia with his husband, Robert, and two cats Jinx and Franklin.

Justin Seward, Production Manager.  Before stepping into the role of production manager, Mr. Seward worked as props designer for past CTW productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and A Soldier’s Tale.  Justin resides in Boston and works full time as Asst. Props Director at the Huntington Theatre Company, 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award recipient.  Justin also freelances for Antiques Roadshow (Asst. Scenic/Set Decorator,) The Boston Pops, and Boston Symphony/Tanglewood.  Justin has produced props for various Broadway and off-Broadway productions including Merrily We Roll Along, The 39 Steps, Porgy and Bess, Sons of the Prophet, All the Way, and Finding Neverland.  Mr. Seward has worked for various companies including Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Seagle Festival, North Shore Music Theatre, and American Repertory Theatre.  Justin is a proud member of the Society of Prop Managers.  www.justinsewardprops.com