Biography
Gareth Brynmor John is the 2013 winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award. He studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music where, in his final year, he won the Royal Academy of Music Patrons’ Award and the National Opera Studio where he was supported by the Royal Opera House.
He made his Welsh National Opera début in Spring 2017 singing Schaunard (La Bohème) and has gone on to sing the title role in Eugene Onegin, Masetto (Don Giovanni), Robert (Les Vepres Sicilliennes), Papageno, and Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), all for WNO. In 2023/4 season he returns to WNO to sing The English Clerk in their new production of Death in Venice. With the Royal Academy Opera, his roles included Eugene Onegin, Claudio (Béatrice et Bénédict) under Sir Colin Davis, The Ferryman (Curlew River), Sprecher (Die Zauberflöte), and Sir Thomas Bertram (Mansfield Park, Jonathan Dove). Other roles include Papageno (The Magic Flute), Sid (Albert Herring), Theseus (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Shadwell Opera, and Il Conte (Le nozze di Figaro) for the Amersham Festival. He created Carl in Gervasoni’s “Limbus Limbo” which premièred at the Strasbourg Festival Musica and at Opéra Comique in Paris. He has performed Sharpless for Bury Court Opera and at the Anghiari Festival in Tuscany, Pallante (Agrippina) for Iford Arts Opera, Servilio (Lucio Papirio Dittatore by Caldara) at the Buxton Festival, and Edoardo in Donizetti’s The Siege of Calais for English Touring Opera. He recently performed Ishmeron (The Indian Queen) for Opéra de Lille, Opera de Caen, Opera de Luxembourg and Antwerp Opera under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm.
Gareth has performed extensively on the concert platform with a number of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles. Highlights and future plans include Elijah with the Really Big Chorus at Birmingham Town Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Cadogan Hall; Carmina Burana with the Bach Choir at the Royal Festival Hall, with Hertfordshire Chorus at the Barbican, and at the Royal Albert Hall; Handel Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall; Fauré Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall, Dream of Gerontius with the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus; Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony at Salisbury Cathedral, and with the English Arts Chorale at Dorking Halls; Israel in Egypt at the Saffron Walden Concert Hall; Rachmaninov The Bells; Britten’s War Requiem at Guildford and Chichester Cathedrals and with the Cambridge University Music Society; Brahms Requiem with the Ulster Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra broadcast on BBC Radio 3; Belshazzar’s Feast at Guildford Cathedral; St John Passion (Christus) at Hereford Cathedral and for the Three Choirs Festival, Stanford Mass Via Victrix with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and released on Lyrita label; The Kingdom and Claudio / Béatrice et Bénédict with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra; Dido and Aeneas with Hong Kong Philharmonic; The World Premiere of Vision of a Garden (Richard Blackford) with The Bach Choir and David Hill at the Festival Hall; and St Matthew Passion at the Festival Hall with the Bach Choir.
Sought after for his performances of lieder he has given song recitals at St John’s Smith Square, Wigmore Hall, Barber Institute, King’s Place, and at many of the UK music festivals, including Oxford Lieder, The English Music Festival, Ludlow Festival of Song, North Norfolk Music Festival, Buxton Festival, Ryedale Festival and Leeds Lieder. He has shared two recitals with Roderick Williams as part of the Momentum Artists project, and sang Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs with the Aalborg Symphoniker broadcast on Danish Radio P2. His recording of Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen with Trevor Pinnock is available on Linn Records. His recent recording of Stanford’s Children’s songs for the Somm label has received wide critical acclaim as well as his solo recording for the Champs Hill label.
