Iestyn Davies

Iestyn Davies MBE FRAM (born 16 September 1979) is a British classical countertenor, active internationally as a Baroque music soloist and opera performer.

Education and background

Davies was born in York, England, and first studied piano and recorder. He was mentored in his early years by his father, Ioan Davies.^[1][2]

From the age of eight he sang as a boy treble in the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, progressing to countertenor in his teens at Wells Cathedral School.

He returned to St John's College as a choral scholar to read Archaeology and Anthropology.

Davies' father, Ioan, was also a member of St John's College^[3], and the founding cellist with the Fitzwilliam Quartet—founded by Cambridge students.

He gained his diploma from the Royal Academy of Music, which later appointed him an associate.^[4]

In 2004 he won the Audience Prize at the London Handel Singing Competition,^[5] and in 2010 was named "Young Artist of the Year" by the Royal Philharmonic Society.^[6]

Performance

Davies's opera career to date has included^[7] the role of in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea for both Zurich Opera^[8] and Glyndebourne Festival Opera,^[9] and in Handel's Partenope he has sung both Arsace for New York City Opera^[10] and Armindo for English National Opera.^[11] He has sung Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream for Houston Grand Opera,^[12] Apollo in Britten's Death in Venice for English National Opera^[13] and Hamor in Handel's Jephtha for both Welsh National Opera^[14] and Opéra National de Bordeaux.

In 2010 he sang Creonte in Agostino Steffani's Niobe at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 2011, he sang the part of Unulfo in Handel's Rodelinda at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He returned to the Met in 2020 in another Handel opera, Agrippina, in which he sang the role of Ottone.^[15]

He has appeared in concert at Teatro alla Scala with Gustavo Dudamel,^[7] at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and the Tonhalle, Zurich, with Ton Koopman, at the Barbican, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Lincoln Center, and at the Royal Albert Hall in the BBC Proms.^[16]

He has worked with many leading orchestras, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the King's Consort, Northern Sinfonia, the English Concert, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Retrospect Ensemble, the Parley of Instruments, Il Complesso Barocco, the Gabrieli Consort and Players, the Minnesota Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Concerto Köln, Concerto Copenhagen, Ensemble Matheus, Fretwork and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Leading interpreters with whom Davies has collaborated include^[7] conductors Rinaldo Alessandrini, Philippe Bender, Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, Frans Brüggen, Harry Christophers, Stephen Cleobury, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Alan Curtis, Steven Devine, Richard Egarr, John Eliot Gardiner, Edward Gardner, Jane Glover, Paul Goodwin, Emmanuelle Haïm, Matthew Halls, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Edward Higginbottom, David Hill, Benedict Hoffnung, Christopher Hogwood, Peter Holman, Robert King, Nicholas Kraemer, Stephen Layton, Iain Leddingham, Charles Mackerras, Paul McCreesh, Kenneth Montgomery, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Kent Nagano, Donald Nally, James O'Donnell, Enrico Onofri, Daniel Reuss, Jeffrey Skidmore, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Charles Stewart, Patrick Summers, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Alison Balsom and Dominic Wheeler, and recitalists Julius Drake, Mark Padmore, Philip Langridge and Roger Vignoles.

Davies was the guest soloist in Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms at the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in September 2013.

He sang his first full operatic performance for La Scala in Death in Venice. In London, he sang the role of Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream for English National Opera.

Davies performed the singing voice of Farinelli in Farinelli and the King for a 16-week run at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway. The production opened in December 2017, and featured Mark Rylance as King Philippe V of Spain. Davies reprised the role at Shakespeare's Globe and in London's West End.^[17]

In April 2021 Davies sang with English National Opera in a socially distanced performance of Handel's Messiah, staged at the London Coliseum and conducted from the harpsichord by Laurence Cummings. It was broadcast by BBC Two.^[18]

In February 2022, Davies sang in a performance of Bach's Mass in B minor with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Richard Egarr.^[19]

In 2024 he made his Australian debut, starring alongside the Sydney Dance Company in the Australian Chamber Orchestra's national touring production Silence & Rapture.^[20] He also led Opera Australia's production of Orfeo ed Euridice later that year.^[21][22]

Honours

Davies was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2012.^[23]

He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to music.^[24][25]

Discography

Reviews

• The Guardian (2010)
• Time Out (2010)
• The New York Times (2010)
• The Independent (2009)
• Press clippings

References

External links

• Official website
• Wigmore Hall podcast: Iestyn Davies in conversation
• New York City Opera podcast: Iestyn Davies and Anthony Roth Costanzo discuss the countertenor voice
• Audio on YouTube, Iestyn Davies sings "La rondinella amante" from Vivaldi's Griselda with Ensemble Matheus conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi
• "Iestyn Davies: the accidental counter-tenor", The Daily Telegraph, 2009