Stephen Varcoe was educated at The King's School, Canterbury and King's College, Cambridge, where he sang in the choir.
10 Facts About Stephen Varcoe
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Stephen Varcoe later completed a PhD at the University of York.
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Stephen Varcoe performed Alexander Goehr's Sonata About Jerusalem with Oliver Knussen and the Schoenberg Ensemble, Bach's St Matthew Passion with Trevor Pinnock, Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sir John In Love with Richard Hickox and the Northern Sinfonia, and Schubert's Mass in E flat major with Roger Norrington and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
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Stephen Varcoe recorded several Bach cantatas with John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, including an early 1990 recording of Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, together with Ruth Holton and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson.
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Stephen Varcoe recorded with the group Bach's St John Passion and St Matthew Passion and participated in the group's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000.
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Stephen Varcoe recorded Bach's Magnificat and Mass in B minor with Hickox and the Collegium Musicum 90.
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Stephen Varcoe's recording of songs of Charles Villiers Stanford with pianist Clifford Benson was acclaimed in the International Record Review in 2000:.
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Stephen Varcoe sounds as if he has been singing Stanford all his life, and his warm, natural baritone, finely judged legato and sensitivity to words are a joy throughout.
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Stephen Varcoe wrote a book on the art of singing English song: Sing English Song: a practical approach to the language and the repertoire.
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Stephen Varcoe was appointed the President of the Betty Roe Society in 2010.