Robert Murray

Robert was born in Essex in 1976, and began his musical training as a chorister at Brentwood Cathedral. In 1997 he graduated from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne , with a BA Hons in Music. Having finished his course at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School he is now studying at the National Opera Studio.

Robert recently took part in the Acadamie Europeenne de Musique at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, studying with Christa Ludwig and Edda Moser. He has sung in Masterclasses with Philip Langridge, Wolfgang Holzmair, Sarah Walker, Sir Thomas Allen and Gerald Finley. In 2003, he was awarded second place in the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards. He has also recently been accepted on to the Vilar Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden , where he will perform and study as a company member.

Operatic roles include Jenik ( The Bartered Bride ); The Narrator and Sir Philip Wingrave / Owen Wingrave ; Don Curzio and Don Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro for Clonter Opera and also in concert performances with the London Mozart Players conducted by Andrew Parrott. For Orange Opera he has performed the roles of Albert Herring , Tom Rakewell , Andres (Wozzeck), Don Ramiro ( Cenerentola ), and Lensky . For Mananan Festival Opera 2002 he performed the role of Lindoro in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algieri . At the Benjamin Britten International Opera School Robert has performed the roles of Flute/Thisby ( A Midsummer Night's Dream ) directed by John Copley, the Evangelist (Handel's Brockes Passion ), Le Berger ( Oedipus Rex ) and the title role in Albert Herring directed by Sir Thomas Allen. Other operatic engagements include covering the role of Tamino for Scottish Opera and the role of Lurcanio in Handel's Ariodante for Opera da Camera in Linz , Austria .

Recent concert performances include Purcell's The Fairy Queen (Ravenna Festival), Mozart's Requiem (Southwark Cathedral), Steve Martland's Street Songs with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir (Tate Modern), Britten's War Requiem at the Aldeburgh Festival with Simone Young and a recital of Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin with Malcolm Martineau at St John's Smith Square.

Future plans include Mozart's Requiem with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a recital of Britten's Winter Words at the Wigmore Hall, Handel's Messiah with The Sixteen/Harry Christophers in Japan , and as a member of the Vilar Young Artists Programme he will perform Gastone/La Traviata , Second Priest/Die Zauberflöte and Borsa/Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .

Robert studies with Ryland Davies.