Chicago Reader“Curator, musical code-switcher, YouTube sensation: Reginald Mobley is a countertenor for our time”
Miami Herald“Crystalline diction and pure, evenly produced tone”
The Herald“…but the voice that many in the audience left the hall raving about was that of countertenor Reginald Mobley, also pure of tone, immaculate in his articulation and with a personal approach to ornamentation that was never too much and always musical.”
Bachtrack“Finishing with an additional Handel number – described by Mobley as “that musical invasive species” – the AAM (Ancient Academy of Music) elicited an audible sigh from the Stalls with “Yet can I hear that dulcet lay”, a showcase of Mobley’s range and tonal variety to bring to a close a diverse and thought-provoking journey through a mammoth canon, displaying huge talent as well as a love for all things Baroque.”
Early Music America“With Because, his first solo album, he offers a powerful portrait addressing the musical legacy of Black spirituals and the complicated paradoxes contained within them: themes of bondage and salvation, power and tenderness, pain and beauty, spirituality and temporality…We rarely hear a countertenor wade into this repertoire, and Mobley’s voice, which seems to get better by the year, is wonderfully pristine. Like good champagne, his tone is both effervescent and rich…he does not produce sound so much as spin it in long, sumptuous phrases.”
GRAMMY-nominated American countertenor Reginald Mobley is globally renowned for his interpretation of baroque, classical and modern repertoire, and leads a prolific career on both sides of the Atlantic.
An advocate for diversity in music and its programming, Reginald became the first ever Programming Consultant for the Handel & Haydn Society following several years of leading H&H in its community engaging Every Voice concerts. He holds the position of Visiting Artist for Diversity Outreach with Apollo’s Fire and has recently been appointed as Artistic Advisor at the Portland Baroque Orchestra. Reginald is also leading a research project in the UK funded by the AHRC to uncover music by composers from diverse backgrounds.
Highlights of this and next seasons include a diverse range of recitals, with piano and continuo (Chicago, De Bijloke in Gent, Wigmore Hall, MA Festival in Bruges, Bayreuth Baroque festival) as well as regular appearances with specialized ensembles; in North America: the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Collegium San Diego, Agave, Seraphic Fire, Washington Bach Consort and, in Europe: Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Wiener Akademie, Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, and Bach Oxford Soloists. Reginald will also tour Australia with Bach Akademie in May 2025, and will perform Bach’s St John’s Passion with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris as part of the St Denis festival in June 2025.
Reginald has been invited to sing with the US main orchestras including Pittsburgh Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Washington National Symphony, Philadelphia (both chamber and symphony), Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota, Montreal Symphony, Houston Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony and Orchestra of St Luke’s (at Carnegie Hall) for a repertoire comprising Handel’s Messiah, Carmina Burana and the Mozart Requiem.
In Europe, he has appeared with Orchester Wiener Akademie, Balthasar Neumann Chor & Ensemble, Freiburger Barockorchester, I Barocchisti, Bach Society in Stuttgart, Holland Baroque Orchestra, Dutch Bach Society, Monteverdi Choir and English baroque soloists, as well as the City of Birmingham Orchestra and the Budapest Festival Orchestra for a series of performances as Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea. He has also engaged in projects together with the Academy of Ancient Music in Cambridge, singing the role of Disinganno in Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and devising a new program, Sons of England, supported by UKAHRC, which reflects his research under their umbrella, which toured England in May 2024. Reginald gave a Purcell, Handel and Sancho program for his solo debut recital in Paris, which he repeated as part of the Bayreuth baroque opera festival in September 2023.
His first solo CD with ALPHA Classics was released in June 2023 to coincide with a major series of concerts with pianist Baptiste Trotignon at the Aix-en-Provence and BBC Proms festivals. The CD has been recently awarded the Opus Klassik Awards in the ‘Classics without limits’ category. His second recording will take place this autumn: it gives tribute to English baroque music (Purcell, Dowland and Sancho) and its resonance in the more recent American repertoire (with theorb/guitar and violone/doublebass). In addition, Reginald features on several albums with the Monteverdi Choir, Agave Baroque and Stuttgart Bach Society.
JUNE 2024