{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} {{refimprove|date=August 2024}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Michael Chance | honorific_suffix = CBE | image = ChanceGanesha.JPG | alt = | caption = Chance singing Ganesha in Somtow's opera ''Ayodhya'' | image_size = | landscape = | background = solo_singer | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1955|03|07}} | birth_place = Penn, Buckinghamshire, England | origin = | death_date = | death_place = | genre = Classical/Opera | occupation = | instrument = | years_active = | label = | associated_acts = | website = {{url|michaelchancecountertenor.co.uk}} }}
'''Michael Chance''' CBE (born 7 March 1955) is an English countertenor and the founder and Artistic Director of The Grange Festival.
==Early life== Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, England, into a musical family. After growing up as a chorister at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, attending the St George's School, he went on to Eton and later King's College, Cambridge.<ref>‘CHANCE, Michael Edward Ferguson’ in ''Who's Who 2012'' (London: A. & C. Black, 2012); [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U10591, online edition] (subscription site) by Oxford University Press, December 2011, accessed 22 April 2012</ref>
==Career== [[File:Figaro at the Grance June 2019.jpg|thumb|upright|Chance at the Grange Festival in 2019]] His first operatic appearance was in the Buxton Festival in Ronald Eyre's staging of Cavalli's ''Giasone'' which was followed by appearances in Lyon, Cologne, and three seasons with Kent Opera. Subsequently, he has performed in the Sydney Opera House, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, La Scala Milan, Florence, New York, Lisbon, Oviedo, Leipzig, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and with Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, and English National Opera.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=1 January 2025 |title=Michael Chance, Countertenor |url=https://londonconcertchoir.org/people/michael-chance |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240622233221/https://londonconcertchoir.org/people/michael-chance |archive-date=22 June 2024 |access-date=8 December 2025 |website=London Concert Choir}}</ref>
His roles include the title roles of Orfeo (Gluck), Giasone, Giustino, Rinaldo and Ascanio in Alba, Solomon, Ottone / L’incoronazione di Poppea, Athamas / Semele, Andronico / Tamerlano, Oberon / A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tolomeo / Giulio Cesare and Apollo / Death in Venice. He has had roles written specially for him by Sir Harrison Birtwistle (Orpheus / The Second Mrs Kong) and Judith Weir (A Military Governor / A night at the Chinese Opera). Recent festival appearances include Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, BBC Proms in London, Salzburg and Bertarido in a new production of Handel's Rodelinda for the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.<ref name=":0" />
His appearances in oratorio and recital have taken him to concert halls all over the world including Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Neue Gewandhaus and Berlin's Philharmonie. He has given recitals in Frankfurt, Vienna, Amsterdam, Israel, New York and London's Wigmore Hall with a variety of programmes, ranging from Elizabethan lute songs to new works commissioned for him. He sings regularly with the viol consort Fretwork and has toured with them to Japan and the United States.<ref name=":0" />
He took part in the project of Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir to record the complete vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach.{{cn|date=August 2024}}
His belief in extending the countertenor repertoire has prompted new work to be composed for him by Richard Rodney Bennett, Alexander Goehr, Tan Dun, Anthony Powers, John Tavener, and Elvis Costello - amongst others.{{cn|date=August 2024}}
His television appearances include A Night at the Chinese Opera, Death in Venice, The Fairy Queen, the three Monteverdi operas with Netherlands Opera, Poppea with Welsh National Opera, Messiah in Dublin with Sir Neville Marriner, and in the Autumn 1999 he was featured by the South Bank Show.<ref name=":0" />
It was announced in October 2015 that Michael Chance would become the first Artistic Director of The Grange Festival, a new opera company established to continue performances at The Grange theatre in Hampshire. Opening in June 2017 with operas by Monteverdi, Mozart, Bizet and Britten, The Grange Festival is one of the few opera companies in the world to be led by an internationally renowned opera singer.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/14432347.Grange_Festival_announces_programme_for_its_lnaugural_2017_season/ |title=Grange Festival announces programme for its inaugural 2017 season |website=Hampshire Chronicle|access-date=2016-04-20}}</ref> In December 2025, he announced that he would be retiring from the festival in 2026.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 December 2025 |title=Michael Chance to Retire from the Grange Festival After the 2026 Festival |url=https://thegrangefestival.co.uk/news/2025/12/01/michael-chance-retires/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20251208101553/https://thegrangefestival.co.uk/news/2025/12/01/michael-chance-retires/ |archive-date=8 December 2025 |access-date=8 December 2025 |website=The Grange Festival}}</ref>
==Recordings== Michael Chance's list of recordings is numerous and widespread. He received a Grammy Award for his participation in Handel's Semele for Deutsche Grammophon with John Nelson and Kathleen Battle. He has recorded frequently with John Eliot Gardiner, including the Bach Passions and Cantatas, B Minor Mass, Monteverdi's Orfeo and L'Incoronazione di Poppea and Handel's Jephtha, Tamerlano and Agrippina. Other conductors he has recorded with include Trevor Pinnock, Frans Brüggen, Ton Koopman and Nicholas McGegan. On his CD for Deutsche Grammophon, “Michael Chance, the Art of Counter Tenor”, he sings solo alto cantatas by Vivaldi with Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.michaelchancecountertenor.co.uk/biography/ |title=Biography Michael Chance Countertenor |website=michaelchancecountertenor.co.uk}}</ref>
==Honours and accolades== Michael was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=58929 |date=31 December 2008 |page=7 |supp=y }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/31_01_08_honours.pdf|title=BBC News New Year Honours list}}</ref> In December 2024, he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music.{{cn|date=December 2025}}
==Personal life== Michael Chance is married to the poet and classicist Irene Noel-Baker.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Powers |first1=Anthony |title=Changing the story |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780193583481}}</ref> Their son, Alexander Chance, is also an operatic countertenor.<ref>{{cite web |title=Press |url=https://www.alexanderchance.co.uk/press |website=alexanderchance.co.uk |publisher=Alexander Chance |access-date=22 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240221193458/https://www.alexanderchance.co.uk/press |archive-date=21 February 2024 |language=en|url-status=live}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{cc}} *[https://www.thegrangefestival.co.uk The Grange Festival website] *[http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Chance-Michael.htm Bach-Cantatas.com: Michael Chance] *[http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=chance Hyperion Records: Michael Chance] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20090911233655/http://www.opera-opera.com.au/archive/michaelchance.html Michael Chance: Affinities between baroque and rock voices - Opera~Opera article] *{{YouTube|dHbOOe8n2gY|Chance sings Bach}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chance, Michael}} Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Operatic countertenors Category:British performers of early music Category:People from Chiltern District Category:People educated at Eton College Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:People educated at St George's School, Windsor Castle Category:Choral Scholars of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge Category:Singers with The Tallis Scholars