In the young generation of French singers, EDWIN CROSSLEY-MERCER is an outstanding baritone discovery. He has already played in some of the most distinguished opera houses in Europe:

In the course of the 2009-2010 his venues included the DNO in Amsterdam, (as Albert in La Juive by Fromental Halevy) and the Opéra Comique in Paris (as Claudio in Béatrice et Bénédict by Hector Berlioz). He also appeared as Schaunard in La Bohème at the Komische Oper in Berlin, a part which he had already played in the course of the 2008-2009 season. In the 2010-2011 season he made his Paris Opera stage debut by appearing as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss at the Opéra Bastille, where he is already re-engaged for roles in future seasons in Arabella, The Merry Widow and Carmen.

Edwin Crossley-Mercer performed the part of Jean Jacques Rousseau in the world premier of the opéra JJR citoyen de Genève by Philippe Fénelon, staged by Robert Carsen.

After having attended the Conservatory in the French town of Clermont-Ferrand, he went on to the ‘Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles’ and thence to Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, whilst attending master classes with Julia Varady, Ruben Lifschitz, Wolfram Rieger, Reiner Goldberg, Margreet Honig and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

In 2007 he was an HSBC foundation award winner at the 2007 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and won the first prize as best singer at the Lili and Nadia Boulanger International Voice Competition, Paris.

Edwin Crossley-Mercer played the role of Papageno at the Frankfurt Theatre in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and then Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos. In March 2006, he took on the title role in Don Giovanni produced in Berlin. In March of the same year, he made his debut at the ‘Berliner Staatsoper Unter den Linden’, first of all in the role of Kilian in Der Freischütz by Weber (a role he played again in March 2008 at the Komische Oper), followed by the role of Viscount Cascada, being then cast as the Jurist in Doktor Faust by Feruccio Busoni conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

July 2009 marked his appearance at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as Guglielmo in Cosi Fan Tutte under the baton of Christophe Rousset.

Edwin Crossley-Mercer has also numerous baroque repertoire performances throughout Europe and the USA to his credit, having been conducted by Christophe Rousset (Persée by Lully), Martin Gester (Johannis Passion by J.S. Bach) Gérard Lesne and Olivier Schneebeli at the Chapelle Royale of the Château de Versailles. In the course of this season he played the role of Florestan in Amadis by Jean Baptiste Lully at the Opéra d’Avignon and the Opéra de Massy as well as Thésée from Hippolyte et Aricie by Rameau at the Beaune festival and will be performing the same part in the Royal Opéra de Versailles in february 2013.

It was also under Olivier Schneebeli’s baton that Edwin Crossley-Mercer has performed in two recordings on the K617 label: Les Motets by Charpentier and Arias and opera extracts written by Lully. In addition to the opera, Edwin performs consistently as a recitalist, working regularly with Jérôme Ducros, Noël Lee as well as with Semjon Skigin, with whom he performed in Moscow in February (Dom Musiki), in Aix in November, at the Opéra de Lille and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris as well as Saint Petersburg festival last summer. They also gave a recital of Schubert’s Winterreise in Villa Wahnfried at the Richard Wagner festival, Bayreuth.

He has given recitals at the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, and in Germany at the Mecklenburgische Festspiele, at the French Festival de Pâques in Deauville, at the Opéra de Lille, Bad Kissingen, the Festival de Colmar and also gone on tour to China with the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. He appeared in Munich with the Bayerischer Rundfunkorchester (Munich Radio Orchestra) in Camille Saint Saens’ Oratorio de Noel and Joseph Haydn’s Schöpfungsmesse as well as many recitals and concerts at the Bad Kissingen festival. He sang the baritone solos in Brahms’  “Ein Deutsches Requiem” (Berlin Rundfunkchor – Hamburger Festspiele) and Faurés Requiem (Radio France & ONF – Paris).

During this season, Mr. Crossley-Mercer will perform a world premiere opera by Fenelon at the Grand Theatre de Genève. Amongst his projects figures his title role of the diabolical seducer in Don Giovanni at the Opéra de Dijon, Dandini in La Cenerentola at the Opéra National du Rhin and Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro accompanied by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra and under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel next spring.