This outstanding young Tenor has performed at some of the world's best loved performance venues with the most distinguished conductors and orchestras. He enjoys his mission to make classical music accessible to a wide audience with his inimitable humour, poise and freshness, which has led him to tour extensively with the likes of Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins, Hayley Westenra, Lesley Garrett and Dame Shirley Bassey on her UK arena tour.

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Praised recently in the Daily Telegraph for possessing ‘a tenor voice of real distinction’, he is fast emerging as one of ‘our finest young singers’.

Following his formative training at the Scottish Youth Theatre and the NYMT, he graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama under the vocal guidance of John Llewellyn Evans and went on to study at the National Opera Studio before taking up his place at the London Coliseum as a Young Artist with the English National Opera.

This last year marked a run of successful debuts in some of the UK’s most distinguished opera houses. His most recent roles include Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress, MacHeath The Beggar’s Opera, Jaquino Fidelio (Opera Holland Park), Lampwick The Adventures of Pinocchio, and Quint The Turn of the Screw (Opera North; Arcola Theatre London), and Baron Lummer Intermezzo (Scottish Opera). This was followed by his debut at the English National Opera in the leading part of Brian in Nico Muhly’s MET commissioned opera Two Boys, which received its world premiere at the Coliseum and gained him uniformly outstanding reviews.

Twice Classical Brit nominated, he has won many awards including the National Bruce Millar Opera Prize, the Kathleen Ferrier Young Singers Bursary Award, a Sybil Tutton Award and the annual Concordia Barthel Prize. Affiliated with many of the UK’s most highly-regarded stables, he is a proud Britten-Pears Young Artist, a Concordia Foundation Artist, and a Solti and Samling Foundation Scholar. He is grateful for the generous support he has received from the Countess of Munster Trust, the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Wingate Foundation, the John Wates Charitable Trust, the Wang Foundation, the Kathleen Trust, the Dewar Arts Award Scheme, the Sir John Caird Scholarship and the Scottish International Education Trust.

His diverse repertoire ranges from Handel and Mozart to Donizetti, Britten and Jonathan Dove, having collaborated with the finest orchestras on some of the world’s most major platforms. Recent concert performances include a Britten Song-Cycle Series in Aldeburgh and at Kings Place, world premiere performances at the Wigmore Hall and the Royal Festival Hall, a lecture-recital at the Howard Assembly Rooms, and Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings with L’Orchestre National d’Ile de France under Gordan Nikolic. Further recitals are planned in London, at the Leeds and Oxford Lieder Festivals in the autumn, and a John McCormack/Kreisler inspired tour of Ireland, which is to be broadcast later this year.

An experienced recording artist, he attracted a recording contract with Universal Classics at a very young age and has contributed to Platinum Selling disks the world over. He has recently recorded a disk of Britten Songs with Malcolm Martineau (Onyx) for release later in the year and his current release of premiere Hoddinott recordings brought him extensive acclaim.

‘Engaging and shining, both Song-Cycles are given highly nuanced and projected performances' (GRAMOPHONE DEC 2010). Adding to his credentials in contemporary repertoire, he will record two works by Mark-Anthony Turnage with Chamber Domaine this summer, Greek and A Constant Obsession, for Resonus Classics. Both are world premiere recordings.

Hailed as ‘Scotland’s Top Tenor’, he contributes heavily to the culture of his homeland giving him increasing recognition on stage, radio and television as a presenter and performer alike. As one of Scotland’s proudest sons, he has performed for the Royal Family and other heads of State on several occasions including the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall. As a spokesperson for Scottish culture, he has been commissioned to write documentaries, comment on current affairs and has toured extensively with the world’s most popular stars, leading to the success of his own debut album of Scots songs My First Love, which reached the top ten in the Scottish Pop Charts. A committed charity worker, he is Age UK’s youngest patron and works enthusiastically with various charities both locally and Nationwide, which includes the presidentship of his hometown’s very own Dumfries Musical Theatre Company.

Future opera plans include the role of Thomas Mason in Jenny McLeod’s opera Hohepa for New Zealand Opera to be presented at the New Zealand International Arts Festival, a return home to ENO for Novice Billy Budd and his Grange Park Opera debut as Chevalier de la Force in Les Dialogues des Carmelites.

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