An honours graduate and choral scholar from New College, Oxford, Toby Spence studied at the Opera School of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was the winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society 2011 Singer of the Year award.

In concert Toby has sung with the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi, Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wiener Philharmoniker under Simon Rattle; San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas; the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Antonio Pappano; Rotterdam Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev; London Symphony Orchestra under Colin Davis; London Philharmonic Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel; Bayerischer Rundfunk under Edward Gardiner and at the Osterfestspiele Salzburg and Edinburgh International Festival under Roger Norrington and Charles Mackerras. Recent appearances include The Seasons with the Philharmonie de Paris, Bruckner F minor Mass with the Sinfonieorchester Basel; Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Liszt’s Faust Symphony with the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg; The Creation with the Houston Symphony Orchestra; Messiah, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Mumbai; War Requiem at the Slovak Philharmonic Concert Hall and with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Missa Solemnis with the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas.

A prolific recitalist, Toby has given numerous solo recitals for BBC Radio 3 and at London’s Wigmore Hall, and has appeared at LSO St Luke’s, Opera de Lille, at Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of Voice, Janacek’s Brno International Music Festival and Aldeburgh Festival. He has made numerous recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, BMG, Philips, Collins, Linn Records, Hyperion and EMI.

Recent opera engagements include Ghandi Satyagraha at English National Opera; Captain Vere Billy Budd for Teatro Real and Opera di Roma; Anatol Vanessa for Frankfurt Opera; Don Ottavio at the Liceu Barcelona; Eisenstein Die Fledermaus and Antonio The Tempest for the Metropolitan Opera; Don Ottavio and Tito for the Wiener Staatsoper; Essex Gloriana and Tamino Die Zauberflöte for the Royal Opera House, where his previous roles have also included Ferdinand The Tempest, David Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Count Almaviva Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ramiro and Tom Rakewell; Tamino, Candide, Paris La Belle Hélène, Lensky and Faust for English National Opera; Madwoman Curlew River for the Edinburgh Festival; Tito, Tamino and Henry Morosus Die Schweigsame Frau for the Bayerische Staatsoper; and Tom Rakewell and David Die Meistersinger at Opéra de Paris.

Engagements in the 2018-19 season include Dvorak Stabat Mater with Houston Symphony Orchestra; Britten War Requiem with Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Szymanowski’s 3rd Symphony for the Gulbenkian Foundation and performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana in Shanghai and Beijing with Long Yu and Aida Garifullina for Deutsche Grammophon’s 120’s anniversary. Opera engagements include Captain Vere Billy Budd for the Royal Opera House and a staged version of Britten Les Illuminations for Teatro Real Madrid.

 

Natasha Worsley/July 2018