John Elwes
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John Elwes (original name John Hahessy) (born October 20, 1946) is an English tenor singer.
Born in London, he was a boy chorister in the choir of Westminster Cathedral, where he first studied music under George Malcolm. He had a successful career as a boy soprano; he became head chorister at Westminster Cathedral and sang Isaac in the recording of Benjamin Britten's canticle Abraham and Isaac, alongside Peter Pears. Britten later dedicated his Corpus Christi Carol to him. He changed his surname from Hahessy to Elwes in honour of the tenor Gervase Elwes, with whose family he lived when he was a teenager. He went on to study at the Royal College of Music, and made his stage debut as a tenor in 1968 at The Proms.
Elwes has specialised in early music (though occasionally sings modern repertoire), first performing with the Medieval Ensemble of London and the Consort of Musicke. He now regularly performs opera has worked with the leading conductors of baroque and early classical music including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock and Christopher Hogwood. He has sung in over one hundred recordings, including John Dowland's First Book of Ayres, Franz Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin, Henry Purcell’s The Tempest (under John Eliot Gardiner), Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Mass in B minor (under Gustav Leonhardt), and Handel's Messiah (under Masaaki Suzuki). He has an exceptionally high-lying and secure upper register which allow him to sing demanding repertoire such as the tenor leads in the operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau.
