Ian Partridge

Ian Partridge CBE (born 12 June 1938) is a retired English lyric tenor, whose repertoire ranged from Monteverdi, Bach and Handel, the Elizabethan lute songs, German, French and English songs, through to Schoenberg, Weill and Britten, and on to contemporary works. He formed a renowned vocal-piano duo with his sister Jennifer Partridge, with whom he worked for over 50 years. While concentrating mainly on songs, oratorio and lieder, he also recorded opera, and has an extensive discography. He is now a teacher and adjudicator, and conducts master classes in many countries.

Ian Harold Partridge was born in 1938 in Wimbledon. He was a chorister at New College, Oxford 1948–52, and a music scholar at Clifton College. He studied at the Royal College of Music from 1956, studying piano and voice. Leaving after a year because he had engaged in paid employment, which was banned by the RCM, he transferred to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where his voice teachers were Norman Walker and Roy Hickman; he also studied conducting under Aylmer Buesst. During this period, he appeared in the West End production of John Osborne's Luther. From 1958 to 1962 he sang in the Westminster Cathedral Choir, where he worked on plainchant with George Malcolm. He also worked for some time as a piano accompanist. He took further instruction from Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears.

He made his debut in 1958 at Bexhill in Handel's Messiah, and commenced a solo singing career in 1962. He formed a renowned vocal-piano duo with his sister Jennifer Partridge, with whom he performed over 430 recitals over 52 years. On one occasion in Syria, the hall was sold out, until the audience discovered the performers were not The Partridge Family. In 1967, he recorded for Emi records Ltd, with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge and the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by David Willcocks, the Charpentier's "Messe de Minuit" for Christmas H.9