Biography
Charlotte de Rothschild studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and at the Royal College of Music in London. With her wide knowledge of the song repertoire, from different eras, countries and genres, she has created some wonderful themed programmes; the best known being the "Family Connections" programme which Charlotte has performed all over the world. Some of the concerts took place in original family houses such as the Villa Ephrussi-Rothschild in the south of France, the Château de Ferrières outside Paris and in the Rothschild-Palais in Frankfurt where she presented this programme for Chancellor Kohl on the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mayer Amschel, the founder of the dynasty. In 2011 she performed the "Family Connections" programme in Mumbai, in Athens, and in Geneva with Danielle Perrett accompanying on the harp.
Her on-going research led to the discovery of a musical autograph book, started by a previous Charlotte de Rothschild in 1827, and in 2010 Charlotte collaborated with Professors Philip Gossett and Francesco Izzo, both well-known musicologists, in performances of music taken from this Rothschild "Livre d'Or". Professor Gossett's research on the material has yielded a wealth of new knowledge and material and they presented their findings at the 2011 American Musicological Society conference in San Francisco in November.
Other themes presented in major concert halls or Festivals include "A Bouquet of Flower Songs" (arranged by the season) with which Charlotte toured Japan and India in the Spring of this year, "Women of the Old Testament" (with harpsichord and piano accompaniments) that she devised for the B'nai Brith Music Festival and "A Woman's Lot" (a humorous look at the passage of life) which she created for the National Federation of Women's Institute's 75th anniversary. Last November, Charlotte put together a new programme with harp for the McMullen Museum of Art in Boston. This concert was held in conjunction with the art exhibition "Making History", from the Royal Society of Antiquaries, and included songs that reflect Antiquarian interest in England in the 18th, 19th and early 20th Centuries. In 2012 Charlotte repeated this recital in Yale and will do so in London. Whilst in America Charlotte and Danielle premièred another new programme at the National Gallery of Art in Washington given in honour of the Joan Mirò exhibition.
Charlotte's oratorio career has been extensive; she was a soloist for the Bach Choir with Sir David Willcocks in Exeter, Wells and Truro Cathedrals, in King's College, Cambridge and at the Royal Festival Hall. She performed in Mozart's Requiem twice in the Place de la Madeleine in Paris and was a soloist in Rossini's Petite Messe Solonelle for a recording made in Japan. Her most recent recording with chorus is a new CD of the compositions of Gary Higginson, released on the Regent Record label, with the Ely Cathedral Girl's Choir and Selwyn College Choir . Charlotte has just become a Nimbus Alliance artist and has a 6 CD contract with them. After performing in Japan for over twenty years, she recorded a CD of classical Japanese songs called "A Japanese Journey" which has recently been re-released on the Nimbus Alliance label (NI6190). She was the first gai-jin (foreigner) to have recorded this music in the native tongue and as such was hailed as a pioneer. She has promoted the beauty of these songs all over the world, accompanied by the harp, piano or orchestra; a 20-minute arrangement of Kohsaku Yamada songs was commissioned especially for Charlotte and the English Chamber Orchestra in a concert held at the Barbican and she premièred this work in Prague Castle. She devised and performed quite a number of the Japanese songs as well as her family songs in a 90-minute television documentary for NHK TV called "Rothschild Passions". Her newest Nimbus CD is a magical collection of British "Fairy Songs" (NI6193) and she is about to record all the songs of her ancestor Mathilde de Rothschild for a future double album.
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