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Stephen Ralls began his musical career in England, following studies at Merton College, Oxford, and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he received the major chamber music and accompaniment prizes. He was soon involved in frequent recitals throughout the United Kingdom and in regular broadcasts for the BBC. While working with the English Opera Group, he was selected as chief repetiteur for Britten’s last opera, Death in Venice, and played the important solo piano part in the first performances and on the London/Decca recording. This led to recital appearances with Sir Peter Pears at the Aldeburgh Festival and on the BBC, and to Mr Ralls’s appointment to the staff of the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, where he worked as coach and accompanist for eighteen years.
Meanwhile, his reputation extended to Canada, following an invitation in 1978 to teach at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. From 1996 to 2008, he served as Associate Professor and Musical Director of the Opera Division, for whom he conducted many productions, including Canadian or Toronto premieres of Chabrier’s L’Etoile and Britten’s Paul Bunyan and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2002, he began a series of Handel projects with Jeanne Lamon (of Tafelmusik), which included the Toronto stage premieres of Alcina, Ariodante and Semele.
Stephen Ralls has accompanied Canada’s finest singers, including Maureen Forrester, Catherine Robbin, Adrianne Pieczonka, Monica Whicher, Michael Schade, Colin Ainsworth, Gerald Finley and Mark Pedrotti, in numerous concerts, festivals and broadcasts. A large proportion of this work has been the result of his Artistic Directorship of the Aldeburgh Connection. He co-founded this organization, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007, with Bruce Ubukata in order to foster performances by Canadian artists of recital repertoire. It presents up to a dozen concerts annually in Toronto and also tours across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. June 2007 saw the inauguration of a summer festival in Bayfield, Ontario, on the shores of Lake Huron.
He has also worked with the Canadian Opera Company, the Banff Centre and the National Arts Centre. His recordings include Songs of Oskar Morawetz (Canadian Music Centre), The Lyrical Art of Mark Pedrotti (CBC Records), The Aldeburgh Connection: Schumann, Brahms and Greer (CBC Records), Benjamin Britten: The Canticles (Marquis Records), L’Invitation au voyage: the songs of Henri Duparc (CBC Records) and the 1998 Juno Award winner, Songs of Travel (CBC Records) with baritone, Gerald Finley. Schubert among friends (Marquis Records), songs, part-songs and piano-duets with Gillian Keith, Michael Schade, Colin Ainsworth, Gerald Finley and Bruce Ubukata, was nominated for a Juno in 2008. Our Own Songs, music by Beckwith, Greer and Holman commissioned by the Aldeburgh Connection and featuring Adrianne Pieczonka, Monica Whicher, Elizabeth Turnbull, Colin Ainsworth and Mark Pedrotti, was released by Marquis Records in March 2008. |