About

Gareth Brynmor John is an established Welsh baritone and winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award. He appears regularly with Welsh National Opera, where he made his debut in 2017 as Schaunard (La Bohème) and has since performed a wide range of principal roles including the title role in Eugene Onegin, Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Masetto (Don Giovanni) and Robert (Les Vêpres Siciliennes). In the 2023/24 season, he returned to the company to sing The English Clerk in their acclaimed new production of Death in Venice.

His operatic work extends across the UK and internationally, with appearances including Ishmeron (The Indian Queen) for Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Caen, Opéra de Luxembourg and Antwerp Opera under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm. He created the role of Carl in Gervasoni’s Limbus Limbo at the Strasbourg Festival Musica and Opéra Comique in Paris. Other roles have included Il Conte (Le nozze di Figaro), Theseus (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Sid (Albert Herring), Pallante (Agrippina), Servilio (Lucio Papirio Dittatore) and Edoardo (The Siege of Calais) for a range of UK companies and festivals.

Alongside his operatic career, he has performed extensively on the concert platform with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles. Highlights include Elijah with the Really Big Chorus at Birmingham Town Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Cadogan Hall; Carmina Burana at the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican and the Royal Albert Hall; Handel’s Messiah and Fauré’s Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall and with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris and at the Musikverein in Vienna; The Dream of Gerontius; Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony; Israel in Egypt; Rachmaninov’s The Bells; Britten’s War Requiem; Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem (broadcast on BBC Radio 3); Belshazzar’s Feast; Bach’s St John Passion (Christus) and St Matthew Passion; Stanford’s Mass Via Victrix (BBC Radio 3 / Lyrita); Dido and Aeneas with the Hong Kong Philharmonic; and the world premiere of Vision of a Garden by Richard Blackford at the Royal Festival Hall. He has appeared with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and performed Luke Styles’ No Friends but the Mountains with the London Symphony Orchestra.

A sought-after recitalist, he has appeared at Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, the Barber Institute and King’s Place, and at festivals including Oxford Lieder, the English Music Festival, St Endellion, Ludlow Festival of Song, North Norfolk Music Festival, Buxton Festival, Ryedale Festival and Leeds Lieder. He has also performed Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with Aalborg Symphoniker, broadcast on Danish Radio P2.

His recordings include Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Trevor Pinnock (Linn Records), a critically acclaimed recording of Stanford’s Children’s Songs (Somm), and a solo recording for the Champs Hill label.

He studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music—where he was awarded the Royal Academy of Music Patrons’ Award—and the National Opera Studio, supported by the Royal Opera House.

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