The International Handel Singing Competition named its 2022 winner on Friday as countertenor Alexander Chance.

Chance, a former Choral Scholar at New College, Oxford also received the Audience Prize at the London event. The Award will add to a CV which includes recent appearances with such leading figures in the choral world as Arcangelo's Jonathan Cohen and La Nuova Musica's David Bates, taking part in a European tour of Purcell's King Arthur and The Fairy Queen with Gramophone Recording of the Year winners Vox Luminis, and last year performing the role of Oberon in The Grange Festival's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In Gramophone's pages, he was singled out for praise in a review as far back as 2016, of John Blow 'Symphony Anthems' on New College's Novum label, conducted by Robert Quinney, when David Vickers wrote of 'polished solo singing in the verses (notably from the countertenor Alexander Chance)'. More recently, in March this year, in his review of John Eliot Gardiner's recording of Bach's St John Passion on DG, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood praised his 'ringing and true "Es ist vollbracht" – a fitting match for his father’s memorable account in Gardiner’s first recording' - his father being the acclaimed countertenor Michael Chance.

You can watch Alexander Chance singing an excerpt from Bach's St John Passion below: 

Laurence Cummings, Musical Director for the London Handel Festival and who conducted the final round of the competition, said: 'It was a real joy to work with all of our finalists and I look forward to watching all of their careers bloom. In the end there is only one winner. Huge congratulations to Alexander Chance. The judges were particularly impressed with his expressive and committed singing.'

Chance follows former winners and finalists including Iestyn Davies, Lucy Crowe, Grace Davidson, Tim Mead and Ruby Hughes.

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