Nicky Spence
Tenor Nicky Spence renounced a flourishing career as a crossover singer to build a presence in opera. He has appeared widely in opera houses around Britain, the U.S., and continental Europe.
Spence was born in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1983. He started performing as a child and won a local singing competition when he was 14. He worked at a fish-and-chips shop to save money to attend the nearby Wallace Hall Academy, where he studied with Margaret Davies and was also exposed to national theater companies. Spence enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where he won the Kathleen Ferrier Scholarship Award. He graduated in 2005, having already received and accepted an offer from the Universal Classics and Jazz label, which wanted to bill him as "the Scottish tenor." Spence released his debut album, My First Love, in 2006.
That album garnered Spence several awards, and he appeared on British television and on tour with pop singer Shirley Bassey. At that point, however, Spence unexpectedly rebooted his career, returning to Guildhall and enrolling in its traditional opera studies program, studying with John Llewelyn Evans. His instincts were vindicated as he won a place at Britain's National Opera Studio in 2009 and was awarded the Bruce Millar Gulliver Opera Prize. The following year, Spence earned a place in the permanent company of the English National Opera. He had major parts with that company in the 2010s, creating the role of Brian in Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys in 2011 and appearing as Francesco in Berlioz's opera Benvenuto Cellini in a 2015 production by film director Terry Gilliam. He was heard during this period on recorded song recitals on the Naxos, Stone, and Chandos labels. Spence reprised his Muhly role at the Metropolitan Opera in 2013 and has gone on to appear at prestigious international houses such as the Frankfurt Opera (in Rossini's La gazza ladra, 2014) and the Opéra de Lyon in France (in Janáček's The House of the Dead, 2019). He has appeared on recordings on the Hyperion, Resonus Classics, and Albion labels, notably on the latter in two volumes of folk song settings by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 2020 and 2021. During the pandemic of those years, Spence served as a volunteer vaccinator.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
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Klassiek - Released by PentaTone on 1 sep. 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
A Most Marvellous Party: Noel Coward and Friends
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Das Lied von der Erde: Mahler's Autograph Piano Version
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24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge & Other Songs
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 apr. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
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Ralph Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs, Vol. 3
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Schubert: The Fair Maid of the Mill
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Vocale muziek (wereldlijk en religieus) - Released by Signum Records on 20 mei 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs, Vol. 4
Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, Roderick Williams, William Vann
Klassiek - Released by Albion on 22 apr. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs, Vol. 1
Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, Roderick Williams, William Vann
Klassiek - Released by Albion on 23 okt. 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs, Vol. 2
Roderick Williams, Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, William Vann
Klassiek - Released by Albion on 26 mrt. 2021
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Ralph Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs, Vol. 4
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Klassiek - Released by Albion on 22 apr. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Jonathan Dove: For an Unknown Soldier
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Klassiek - Released by Signum Records on 4 nov. 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Is A Rose
Oliver Zeffman, Philharmonia Orchestra, Davóne Tines, Ella Taylor, Nicky Spence
Klassiek - Released by Ozero Records on 30 jun. 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Soupir
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Shakespeare Songs: As You Like It
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24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Turnage: A Constant Obsession
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Kamermuziek - Released by Resonus Classics on 2 jan. 2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Paradis Sur Terre
Nicky Spence, Malcolm Martineau
Liederen - Released by Chandos on 1 apr. 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Wolf : The Complete Songs, Vol.8. Eichendorff Lieder
David Stout, Nicky Spence, Katherine Broderick, Sholto Kynoch
Liederen (Duitsland) - Released by Stone Records on 4 nov. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795: VI. Der Neugierige
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Vocale muziek (wereldlijk en religieus) - Released by Signum Records on 28 apr. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Robin Hood (Intégrale)
Opera - Released by Naxos on 2 okt. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Die schöne Müllerin D. 795: XII. Pause
Nicky Spence, Christopher Glynn
Vocale muziek (wereldlijk en religieus) - Released by Signum Records on 10 mei 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo