Internationally renowned bass-baritone Bryn Terfel joins students in the Voice & Opera area of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in a discussion and Q&A.
Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel has established an extraordinary career, performing regularly on the prestigious concert stages and opera houses of the world.
After winning the Song Prize at the 1989 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, Sir Bryn made his professional operatic debut in 1990 as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with Welsh National Opera. He made his international operatic debut in 1991 as Speaker in Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, and made his American debut in the same year as Figaro with Santa Fe Opera. Other roles performed during his career include Méphistophélès in Faust, both the Title Role and Leporello in Don Giovanni, Jochanaan in Salome, Scarpia in Tosca, the Title Role in Gianni Schicchi, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, Balstrode in Peter Grimes, Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Sir Bryn marked his 50th birthday and twenty-five years in the profession with a special one-off Gala Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, presented by Hollywood star Michael Sheen. The celebrations continued at Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre, where he sang Scarpia in a special concert performance of Tosca with Welsh National Opera.
Recent performances include Sweeney Todd for Zürich Opera, Boris Godunov for Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Scarpia in Tosca at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna and Holländer in Der fliegende Holländer for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Münich.
Sir Bryn made his greatly anticipated role debut in the Title Role of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden last Autumn to much acclaim. He also made his house debut at ABAO Bilbao Opera in the role of Holländer in Der fliegende Holländer earlier this year.
Operatic highlights to date include his debut in the role of Hans Sachs in the critically acclaimed production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, Wotan in The Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera, New York, his debut in the role of Reb Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for Grange Park Opera, his debut in the role of Boris Godunov for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Sweeney Todd for English National Opera and hosting a four-day festival, Brynfest, at the Southbank Centre, London as part of the Southbank Centre’s Festival of the World.
Equally, at home on the concert platform, his highlights range from the opening ceremony of the Wales Millennium Centre, BBC Last Night of the Proms and the Royal Variety Show to a Gala Concert with Andrea Bocelli in Central Park, New York. He has given recitals all around the world and for nine years, he hosted his own festival in Faenol, North Wales.
Sir Bryn is a Grammy, Classical Brit and Gramophone Award-winner with a discography encompassing operas of Mozart, Wagner, and Strauss, and more than fifteen solo discs including Lieder, American musical theatre, Welsh songs, and sacred repertory.
Bryn was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to Opera in 2003, was awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2006, and received a knighthood for his service to music in 2017. He was the last recipient of the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and in 2015, he was given The Freedom of the City of London.
(Biography courtesy of the Harlequin Agency. )