"Tim Ribchester is a world-class musician, whom I highly recommend. Having collaborated with him as conductor, vocal coach, and pianist, I have received invaluable information that has enhanced my performances and understanding of the score."
- Richard Cox, tenor, Metropolitan Opera
"Tim is a beacon of positive, inspiring musicianship and always sees the given or potential drama in the music at hand. Similarly, he always seeks to see the best in others. As a coach he is a singer's best friend, and can help greatly with the many different aspects of role preparation.”
- Eleanor Greenwood, soprano, winner, Sydney Opera Scholarship
My coaching focuses on
The singer-conductor interaction
The relationships between language, breath, musical style, and character
Applied technical solutions to phrasing challenges
Baroque style, coloratura, and ornamentation, at modern and baroque pitches
General role, chorus, and audition preparation, including stage presence
I came to Berlin, Germany, in 2015 after a five-year apprenticeship as repetiteur and assistant conductor at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. My goal was twofold: to find a place in the German opera theater network to develop my career as a conductor, and to specialize in the baroque repertoire that still enjoys an incomparable level of interpretation and virtuosity in Europe, while staying true as a vocal coach to the healthy technical principles I learned in Philadelphia from some of the greatest teachers and practitioners of Bel Canto singing.
Instead of landing a steady position in a German-speaking theater, I found my workspace expanding both at the keyboard and on the podium: Boston, North Carolina, Trentino, Cape Town, Rabat, Vienna, Munich, as well as audition accompaniment for many prestigious international competitions and casting agencies. Instead of an immersion in the tradition of a single house, I found myself confronted with an ever wider ocean of cultural influences and musical ecosystems. In world-class training programs such as Trentino Music Festival, Premiere Opera Vocal Arts Institute, and four residencies with Cape Town Opera Studio, my coaching work focused on the precision and finesse of audition repertoire preparation, pushing singers to the limits of their abilities and releasing their creative potential for an increasingly competitive professional market.
It took five years of international accomplishments for a German theater to invite me to join its staff, and I could not be more thrilled that the theater in question was the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, with whom I have enjoyed a rich creative partnership in the repertoire I care about most. The conductors I have been privileged to work with there, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and at MusikTheater an der Wien, have pushed me to new depths of interpretive thinking while confirming the instincts that I brought with me from Philadelphia. I’m happy to say that my coaching philosophy and overall approach have not changed, rather acquired fresh perspectives and possibly an efficiency that can only come from seeing others achieve one’s goals with greater speed and elegance.
Distinguished singers from the world’s major stages, as well as hundreds of young artists and emerging professionals, have become regular visitors to my Berlin studio and now increasingly online as well. My goal, whatever the singer’s level of experience, is to develop their relationship with the composer and with their artistic colleagues in order to unlock the freest, most powerful theatrical experience that singer can deliver. In this I follow the first-hand example of conductors Christopher Larkin, Christofer Macatsoris, Christopher Moulds, René Jacobs, and of course Sir Simon Rattle; directors Tito Capobianco, Stefan Herheim, David Gately, Sir David McVicar, and Nic Muni; and voice teachers Deborah Polaski, Neil Shicoff, William Stone, and Benita Valente.
I coach the entire standard operatic repertoire, contemporary music, and art song. My areas of special interest are the Italian baroque (including Handel), Mozart/DaPonte, and verismo. I have a Flemish harpsichord at A=415 for those wishing to work at this pitch.
During 2020 I explored the possibilities of remote coaching thoroughly, as well as chairing several conference calls on the subject with my peers, and am very comfortable navigating this format’s potential.
I am currently based in Berlin’s Halensee area (between S Halensee and Adenauerplatz on the Kurfürstendamm).
