Pannon Philharmonic

Ashley Riches was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 2012 to 2014. Previously he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and read English at Cambridge University, where he was a member of the King’s College Chapel Choir under Stephen Cleobury.
Already well established on the concert platform, appearances include the UK Premiere of Shostakovich Orango with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Messiah in Symphony Hall, Birmingham with Stephen Cleobury, Mass in B Minor with Arcangelo at Flanders Festival in Ghent, Belshazzar’s Feast with David Temple at the Royal Festival Hall, Beethoven Missa Solemnis with Sir Roger Norrington, Verdi Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall and Winchester Cathedral, Handel L’Allegro with the Gabrieli Consort at St John’s Smith Square and in Beaune, Mozart Requiem with David Hill and the Bach Choir, Britten War Requiem with Jan Latham-Koenig and Novaya Opera, Moscow, Bach Cantatas with the AAM and Richard Egarr at the Wigmore Hall and Handel’s Israel in Egypt at Dartington with Jonathan Cohen.
Operatic appearances include the title roles in Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni, Marcello and Schaunard La Bohème, Aeneas Dido and Aeneas, Father Hansel and Gretel, Tarquinius The Rape of Lucretia, Sid Albert Herring, Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ibn-Hakia Iolanta and The Drunken Poet, Winter, Corydon and Sleep in The Fairy Queen with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, Polyphemus Acis and Galatea with Paul McCreesh and Claudio Beatrice and Benedict with Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In November 2012 he made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden singing with Roberto Alagna in a Gala Concert and appeared as Salieri in Rimsky Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri with the Jette Parker Young Artists at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Covent Garden for which he received outstanding reviews in the National Press. His roles at Covent Garden in the 2013/14 season included Morales Carmen, Mandarin Turandot, Baron Douphol La Traviata, Officier Les Dialogues des Carmelites and Osmano L’Ormindo at the Globe.
Ashley has given song recitals at Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, the City of London Festival, Chelsea Schubert Festival and Ludlow Festival and has recorded Poulenc Chansons Gaillardes with Graham Johnson for Hyperion. He also sang several Handel arias for a David Starkey TV series “Monarchy and Music” with the AAM and Richard Egarr and has recorded Pilate St John Passion with Richard Egarr and the AAM, Mercury in Daniel Purcell’s The Judgement of Paris and Handel's L'Allegro with the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh. Ashley has also recently recorded a solo programme of Shakespeare sonnets set to music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, under the Resonus Classics label.
Recent engagements include title role in Owen Wingrave Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy, Michael in the World Premiere of Glare by Eichberg for the ROH at the Linbury, Messiah with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Egarr and with the OAE in London, Seville and Barcelona, War Requiem at Cadogan Hall and Guglielmo Così fan tutte with Garsington Opera.
This season Ashley made his debut as Schaunard in La Boheme with English National Opera, Pollux Castor and Pollux with Christian Curnyn at St John’s Smith Square, and Handel’s Messiah in Kristiansand, Norway, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with the AAM and Mozart Requiem in Italy with John Eliot Gardiner. Ashley goes on to appear as a soloist on a tour of Bach’s Matthew Passion with The Monteverdi Choir and John Eliot Gardiner, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the Cambridge University Music Society, and with the Philharmonia Orchestra in John Powell’s Prussian Requiem. Ashley subsequently makes his debut with the Berlin Philharmoniker as Kreon Oedipus Rex and sings The Kingdom at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester.