Iestyn Davies studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar at St John’s College, before pursuing his vocal studies at the RAM

Since his debut as Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea for Zürich Opera (Harnoncourt) operatic roles have included: Hamor (Handel’s Jephtha) and L’Humana Fragilità and Pisandro (Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria) for WNO; Solo Counter-tenor (Purcell’s King Arthur) for ENO at the London Coliseum and at Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley; Apollo (Britten’s Death in Venice) for ENO; Azul (Nadaira’s Madrugada) for the Schleswig-Holstein Festival and Corrado (Vivaldi’s Griselda) in Paris and Brest. He has worked with directors including, Warner, Mitchell, Alden and Flimm.

Appearances at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Concertgebouw, Snape Maltings and Théátre des Champs-Élysées have included performances of Britten’s Canticles, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Handel’s Messiah and Flavio. He has sung with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Matheus and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and works with conductors including, Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Nagano, Glover, Alessandrini, Spinosi, Koopman and Hogwood.

Recent recordings include Handel’s Messiah for Naxos with the Academy of Ancient Music and New College Oxford and Vivaldi’s Griselda for Naïve Records conducted by Spinosi, which won BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Opera Recording of the Year 2007’.

Future concerts include Handel’s Flavio with the Academy of Ancient Music under Hogwood at the Barbican, Bach’s B minor Mass with the Academy of Ancient Music under Layton and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala under Dudamel. He will give a Vivaldi recital in Poland with Arte dei Suonatori and will make his debut solo recital at the Wigmore Hall. Future operatic engagements include Ottone in L’Incoronazione di Poppea for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Purcell’s King Arthur for New York City Opera, Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Houston Grand Opera and Armindo in Handel’s Partenope at English National Opera.

January 2008