Neal Davies was born in Newport, Gwent and studied at King’s College, London, and the Royal Academy of Music, of which he was made a Fellow in 2003. He continued his studies at the International Opera Studio, Zurich, under the patronage of Dame Gwyneth Jones. He won the Lieder Prize at the 1991 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. He made his professional debut with the Coburg Opera. Since 1992 he has been a regular guest at the Edinburgh Festival (under Rozhdestvensky, Runnicles and Mackerras) and at the BBC Proms.

His recordings include Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream under Sir Colin Davis for Philips, Messiah, Theodora and Saul under Paul McCreesh for Deutsche Grammophon, Vivaldi Cantatas and Handel’s L’Allegro under Robert King for Hyperion, Dutilleux songs under Yan-Pascal Tortelier for Chandos and he takes part in the Collins English Song series and the Hyperion complete Schubert Edition.

His concert engagements have included both the Cleveland and Philharmonia Orchestras under von Dohnanyi, the Gabrieli Consort and McCreesh (including Handel’s Saul for the BBC Proms), the Oslo Philharmonic under Jansons, the BBC Symphony under Boulez, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Altrichter and Schwarz, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Marriner, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and de Waart, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Brüggen, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Harnoncourt, the Detroit Symphony and McGegan, the Minnesota Orchestra and Vänskä, Les Violons du Roy and Labadie, The Akadamie fur Alte Musik Berlin and Creed, the Halle and Mark Elder, the City of Birmingham Symphony under Oramo and the Vienna Philharmonic and Daniel Harding.

His operatic appearances have included Rameau’s Platée (London, Edinburgh Festival), Handel’s Giulio Cesare under and Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) all for the Royal Opera; Handel’s L’Allegro, Publio (La clemenza di Tito), Zebul (Jephtha), Ariodates (Xerxes) and Kolenaty (The Makropoulos Case) for English National Opera; Handel’s Radamisto for the Opera de Marseille; Handel’s Theodora with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie (Paris and Salzburg), Handel’s Orlando with the Gabrieli Consort; Leporello for Scottish Opera; Britten’s Curlew River at the Edinburgh Festival; and Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Leporello, Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), Zebul and Sharpless (Madame Butterfly) for Welsh National Opera. He made his debut with Chicago Lyric Opera as Major General Stanley, under Sir Andrew Davis, in their new production of The Pirates of Penzance.

He will sing Papageno for Welsh National Opera, Gobrias (Handel’s Belshazzar) in Aix, Berlin and Innsbruck, for the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and Ko-Ko (Mikado) for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.