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
Similar artists
-
My First Love
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Decca (UMO) on Jan. 1, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Is A Rose: No. 3 - Red, Red, Rose
Oliver Zeffman, Nicky Spence, Philharmonia Orchestra
Classical - Released by Ozero Records on Jun. 23, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Robin Hood (Intégrale)
Opera - Released by Naxos on Oct. 2, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
R. Strauss: Complete Songs, Vol. 8
Nicky Spence, Rebecca Evans, Roger Vignoles
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Jul. 28, 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Die schöne Müllerin D. 795: XII. Pause
Nicky Spence, Christopher Glynn
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Signum Records on May 10, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Jonathan Dove: Song Cycles
Classical - Released by Naxos on Aug. 5, 2014
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Paradis sur terre: A French Songbook
Nicky Spence, Malcolm Martineau
Classical - Released by Chandos on Apr. 1, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hoddinott: Landscapes
Nicky Spence, Claire Booth, Andrew Matthews-Owen, Jeremy Huw Williams, Michael Pollock
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Naxos on Oct. 1, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Any Little Fish
Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, Joseph Middleton
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Signum Records on Oct. 19, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge & Other Songs
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Apr. 1, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38, Pt 2: But hark! upon my sense
Gabrieli Consort, Nicky Spence, Anna Stephany
Classical - Released by Signum Records on Mar. 14, 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Janáček: The Diary of One Who Disappeared; Nursery Rhymes; Moravian Folk Poetry
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Jun. 28, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Die schöne Müllerin D. 795: XVII. Die böse Farbe
Nicky Spence, Christopher Glynn
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Signum Records on Apr. 21, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Fantasy
Rhona Mckail, Nicky Spence, Kaoru Yamada, Sholto Kynoch
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Stone Records on Jul. 12, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Auld Lang Syne (Limited Edition)
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) on Jan. 1, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nicky Spence (Limited Edition)
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) on Jan. 1, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
R. Strauss: Complete Songs, Vol. 8
Nicky Spence, Rebecca Evans, Roger Vignoles
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Jul. 28, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo