CLINT VAN DER LINDE, counter-tenor, born in 1978 in South Africa
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. As a boy soprano he performed with most of the major orchestras in South Africa 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 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. 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 extensive experience in Baroque music and has worked a fair deal on contempory music. In these fields he has worked as soloist under and alongside many of the world's leading groups and artists - 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, The London Handel Orchestra, Il Fondamento, Le Musiche Nove and The Combattimento Consort Amsterdam. He worked under the direction of Roger Norrington (Mozart’s Requiem), Peter Schreier, Nicholas Kreamer, 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 JS 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 twice appeared as soloist with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment singing Bach's Mass in B minor (BWV 232).
Much of Clint van der Linde’s experience in opera is linked to the London Handel Festival where he has appeared in several title roles in Handel operas: Lotario (1999), Ottone (2000), Flavio (2001), and in 2002 as Judas in the Brockes Passion. In November 2001 he sang the role of Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night‘s Dream, which was the launch of the Benjamin Britten Opera School. He also performed this role in the opera house in Copenhagen in 2004. He made his debut in the Concertgebouw as Narciso In Handel's Agrippina with Combattimento Consort Amsterdam.. He has taken part is some prestigious festivals such as the Schlossfestspiel in Ludwidsbourg , the Kissinger Sommer Festival and the Bach Festival in 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 Handel’s Amadigi with the Lautten Compagney.
