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The South-African counter tenor (and former boy-soprano), Clint van der Linde, started singing in 1988 as a boy soprano in the Drakensberg Boys' Choir School in South Africa (Director: Christian Ashley-Botha). As a boy soprano he performed with most of the major orchestras in South Africa (including the Transvaal Philharmonic Orchestra) and went on to win the singing category of the ATKV competition. Soon after he had started a BMus degree at the University of Pretoria in 1996, during which he was offered an International Scholarship to spend a year at Eton College. During this year he was offered a Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother Scholarship to study for a four year a BMus degree course at the RCM. In 1998 he won the first prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for Young Singers. After completing his BMus in 2001 he was offered a Martin Harris Scholarship to complete his Post Graduate diploma Course. During this period he had master-classes with Roger Vignoles, Sarah Walker, Michael Chance and James Bowman. Later he studied with Ashley Stafford.
Clint van der Linde has much interest in a wide range of styles and genres of singing. However he has an extensive experience in Baroque music and has worked a fair deal on contempory music. In these fields has worked as soloist under and along side many of the leading groups and artists worldwide. Some of which are: the Orchestra of The Age of Enlightenment, The Hanover Band, The Academy of Ancient Music, King's College Cambridge, The King’s Consort, London Handel Orchestra, Il Fondamento, Le Musiche Nove and Combattimento Consort Amsterdam. Some under the direction of Roger Norrington (with W.A. Mozart’s Requiem), Peter Schreier, Nicholas Kraemer, Robert King, Stephen Cleobury, Jan Willem de Vriend, Paul Dombrecht and Gerard Korsten. He sang alto in a SATB group called Close Harmony.
Clint van der Linde has sung much of J.S. Bach's music and has worked as soloist on both the St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) and St John Passion (BWV 245) under the direction of Peter Schreier. He has also on two occasions appeared as soloist with the Orchestra of The Age of Enlightenment singing J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor (BWV 232).
Much of Clint van der Linde’s experience in opera is thanks to the London Handel Festival where he has taken several title roles in George Frideric Handel operas, in Lotario (1999), in Ottone (2000), and in Flavio (2001) and in 2002 as Judas in the Brockes Passion, HWV 48. In November 2001 he sang the role of Oberon in B. Britten’s A Midsummer Night‘s Dream, which was the launch of the Benjamin Britten Opera School and also performed this role in the Opera house in Copenhagen in 2004. He made his debut in the Concertgebouw as Narciso In G.F. Handel's Agrippina with Combattimento Consort Amsterdam.. He has taken part is some prestigious festivals such as the Schossfestspiel in Ludwidsbourg , the Kissinger Sommer Festival and Bachfest Leipzig. In June 2005 he made his debut as Der Huter der Schwelle in R. Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten at La Monnaie in Brussels under Kazushi Ono. Future engagements include some Biber with the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam and G.F. Handel’s Amadigi with the Lautten Compagney Berlin. |
