Russell Harcourt is an exponent of the Bel Canto style rather than the English choral tradition. He continues to gain recognition and critical acclaim on the operatic stage and concert platform for his expressive, colourful and dramatic characterisations.  ​Russell studied voice in Sydney with the acclaimed counter-tenor Graham Pushee and made his operatic début in 2007 as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He made his Australian concert début in 2009 as a guest artist at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and his Royal Opera House stage début in the title role of Handel's Oreste at Wilton's Music Hall.  Career highlights include his critically acclaimed performances of Nerone in Handel’s Agrippina at Brisbane Baroque which earned him a Helpmann Award Nomination; Athamas in Handel’s Semele under the late Sir Charles Mackerras; the title role in Handel's Oreste for the Royal Opera, working with the acclaimed theatre director Peter Sellars in John Adams' Gospel According to the Other Mary for Theater Bonn and Megabise in Hasse's Artaserse alongside Grammy Award nominated mezzo-soprano, Vivica Genaux with Pinchgut Opera (available soon on Spotify and CD release on the Pinchgut Label).  Roles include Athamas Semele under Sir Charles Mackerras (RAM), Volano Il Giasone under Jane Glover (RAM); Fox/Coachman (cover) The Adventures of Pinocchio Opera North; Armindo Partenope Opera Australia under Christian Curnyn; Zelim (cover) La verità in cimento, Licida (cover) L’Olimpiade both for Garsington Opera, Hunahpù (cover) The Indian Queen for Peter Sellars at ENO, Nerone Agrippina for Brisbane Baroque under Erin Helyard, title role Oreste for the Royal Opera House, Countertenor 1 The Gospel According to the Other Mary for Theater Bonn under Natalie Murray Beale, David (cover) Saul, Rosencrantz (cover) Brett Dean Hamlet, both for Glyndebourne Festival and Glyndebourne Tour, Sesto Giulio Cesare in Egitto under Dane Lam for Bury Court Opera, title role Actaeon for Lost & Found Opera under Chris van Tuinen and Corrado Griselda, Andronico Bajazet and Megabise Artaserse, all for Pinchgut Opera under Erin Helyard.  Oratorio experience includes alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus, Israel in Egypt, J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Mass in B Minor, Weihnacht's Oratorium, Schnittke's Faust Cantata, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, excerpts from Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and excerpts from Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater, Magnificat and Introduction and Gloria.  Prizes and scholarships include Hariclea Darclée Special Award for Excellence, The Sir Robert Askin Operatic Travelling Scholarship, Tait Memorial Trust Grant, Australian Music Foundation Awards, Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant, Australia Council for the Arts; Skills and Arts Development Grant and the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship. In 2008, Russell was the winner of the prestigious Dame Joan Sutherland Award, as well as the People’s Choice Award at the same event and in 2012 he was a finalist in The Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall.   Russell holds a Bachelor of Music from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and an MA, Dip. RAM in Opera from The Royal Academy of Music. He studied part-time at the National Opera Studio and is an Associate former young artist of the Jette Parker Young Artist’s Programme at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He has performed in master classes for Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Andreas Scholl and Rosalind Plowright and he is an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.  Russell lives in London and studies with Yvonne Kenny.