Born in Barcelona, Josep-Ramon Olivé was the winner of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Gold Medal in 2017, as well as he was awarded First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Handel Singing Competition in 2015, and the Second Prize at the Concurso Permanente of Juventudes Musicales de España in 2011. Nominated Oxford Lieder Young Artist in 2015, he was also selected for the academy Le Jardin des Voix directed by William Christie and Les Arts Forissants in 2017 and nominated ECHO Rising Star in 2018.
His musical education, including piano, cello and voice, started at the Escolania de Montserrat and followed at the Escola de Música de Barcelona. He held bachelor degrees in Choral Conducting and Singing from the ESMUC in Barcelona before going on to study at the Guildhall School with Professor Rudolf Piernay. Josep-Ramon has taken vocal master classes from Graham Johnson, Gerald Finley, Malcolm Martineau, Kurt Widmer, Josep Bros, Luigi Alva and Teresa Berganza, amongst others.
Olivé’s stage appearances include important venues such as Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana and Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw, the Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Kontzerthaus Wien and London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall; orchestras such as Le Concert des Nations, Les Arts Florissants, Hespérion XXI, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Handel Orchestra; and great conductors such as Jordi Savall, William Christie, Kazushi Ono, Josep Pons, Laurence Cummings, Giampaolo Bisanti and Sigiswald Kujken.
Operatic roles feature Il Conte in Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro, Schaunard in Puccini La Bohème, Masetto in Mozart Don Giovanni, Tarquinius in Britten The Rape of Lucretia, Orfeo in Monteverdi L’Orfeo, Mercutio in Gounod Roméo et Juliette, Kuligin in Janacek Katia Kabanova, Aeneas in Purcell Dido & Aeneas and Maximilian in Bernstein Candide. Within the Oratorio he has performed Brahms Ein Deutches Requiem, Fauré Requiem, Duruflé Requiem, Mozart Requiem and Vesperae Solenne de Confessore, Orff Carmina Burana, Handel Messiah and Alexander Balus and Bach B minor Mass, Magnificat and Weinachts Oratorium. As a lieder performer he has presented Brahms Die schöne Magelone, Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Rückert Lieder, Schumann Dichterliebe, Ravel Histoires Naturelles, Fauré La bonne chanson and Schubert Die schöne Müllerin amongst others.
Josep-Ramon Olivé’s recent highlights include the premiere of works by composers Salvador Brotons (Cantata de Randa), Joan Magrané (Diàlegs de Tirant e Carmesina), Josep Vila i Casañas (Veni Creator Spiritus), Albert Guinovart (Requiem), Johan Duijck (Dixit Dominus), Raquel García-Tomás (Chansons Trouvées), Laurence Osborn (Narkissuss) and Alberto García-Demestres (L’Eclipsi), as well as his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, at the Festival de Peralada and at the CNDM & Teatro de la Zarzuela Ciclo de Lied, and the opening recital at the LIFE Victoria 2018 with pianist Malcolm Martineau.
