NickySpence

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Tenor
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Keiron Cooke

Keiron Cooke

Associate Director
Charlotte Bateman

Charlotte Bateman

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

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About Nicky

An artist of great integrity, Nicky Spence’s unique skills as a singing actor and the rare honesty in his musicianship have earned him a place at the top of the music profession. The BBC Music Magazine named him ‘Personality of the Year’ in 2022 and he was made an OBE in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours. He is the winner of the 2024 RPS Singer Award.

The 2024/25 season sees him sing his first Peter Grimes in a new production of the opera for the Welsh National Opera, return to the Royal Opera as Laca Jenůfa, to the Glyndebourne Festival as Boris Kat’a Kabanova, to the Brno Janáček Festival in the title role of a new production of The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century and to the English National Opera as Bothwell in Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots.

Recent highlights have included Siegmund in Richard Jones’ new production of The Valkyrie for the English National Opera, Loge Das Rheingold at La Monnaie and Erik Der fliegende Holländer for Grange Park Opera; Albert Gregor Věc Makropulos for the Deutsche Staatsoper and Edmundo, Marquès de Nobile in Adès’ The Exterminating Angel for the Opéra national de Paris.

Nicky gives recitals internationally, and records prolifically. In the 2024/25 season he curates a Residency at Wigmore Hall.

In 2020, he won the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award and Gramophone’s Solo Vocal Award for his critically acclaimed recording of Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared.

Nicky is President of the Independent Society of Musicians.

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Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Follow Nicky

Season Highlights

Nov 2024 - Jan 2025
Janáček Festival Brno
Janáček - The Excursions of Mr. Brouček (Matěj Brouček)
Dec 2024 - Dec 2024
Barbican, London
Elgar - Dream of Gerontius BBC Symphony Orchestra Sakari Oramo, conductor Dame Sarah Connolly, mezzo Nicky Spence, tenor Roderick Williams, bass baritone
Jan 2025 - Feb 2025
Royal Opera House
Janáček - Jenůfa (Laca)

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Selected Repertoire

BarberKnoxville: Summer of 1915
BeethovenFidelio (Florestan)
BergLulu (Alwa)   •   Wozzeck (Hauptmann / Andres)
BerliozBenvenuto Cellini (Francesco)
BrittenThe Rape of Lucretia (Male Chorus)   •   Peter Grimes (Title role)   •   Billy Budd (Novice / Captain Vere)   •   Curlew River (Mad Woman)   •   The Beggar's Opera (MacHeath)   •   The Turn of the Screw (Prologue / Quint)   •   
DoveFlight (Bill)   •   The Adventures of Pinocchio (Lampwick)   •   I Giardini Della Storia (Soldier)
DvořákRusalka (The Prince)
JanáčekJenufa (Steva / Laca)   •   Katya Kabanova (Tichon / Boris)   •   The Makropoulos Case (Gregor / Janek)   •   From the House of the Dead (Nikita / Tall Prisoner)   •   The Adventures of Mr Brouček (Mr Brouček)
LeoncavalloZaza (Courtois)
MartinůThe Marriage (Kharkaryov)   •   The Greek Passion (Manolios)
MozartDie Zauberflöte (Tamino)   •   Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Belmonte)   •   La Clemenza di Tito (Tito)
MuhlyTwo Boys (Brian)
RossiniOtello (Iago)   •   Guillaume Tell (Rodolphe)   •   Mosé in Egitto (Mambre)   •   La Gazza Ladra (Isacco)
Saint-SaënsSamson et Dalilah (Samson)
SchönbergMoses und Aron (Junger Mann / Aron)
ShostakovichThe Nose (Title Role)
SmetanaThe Bartered Bride (Vasek)
StraussIntermezzo (Baron Lummer)
StravinskyThe Rake’s Progress (Tom Rakewell)
TchaikovskyEugene Onegin (Lensky)
WagnerDie Meistersinger Von Nürnberg (David)   •   Der Fliegende Holländer (Erik / Steuermann)   •   Tristan und Isolde (Seeman / Hirt)   •   Das Rheingold (Loge / Mime)   •   Die Walküre (Siegmund)   •   Parsifal (Parsifal)
ZimmermannDie Soldaten (Pirzel)

News

Press

  • Oxford International Song Festival Recital with Julius Drake

    Oxford International Song Festival
    Oct 2024

    • The finale, on Saturday at SJE Arts, opened with Gabriel Fauré’s La bonne chanson, settings of poems by Paul Verlaine for voice, piano and string quintet. Spence, joined by Julius Drake (piano), the Piatti Quartet and Leon Bosch (double bass), revelled in the delicate, impressionistic textures of the nine songs, so adored by Marcel Proust, though others thought the whole cycle, and its odd instrumentation, mad. On the night we would turn our clocks back, Spence gave particular zest to the last song, L’hiver a cessé (Winter Is Over), full of dreams of long days and blue skies. In the second half of the recital, with Drake game and willing on piano, the Scottish tenor displayed his unstoppable and expansive energy, adaptability and wit, from Ravel and Poulenc to John Dankworth, Victoria Wood and Stephen Sondheim. When he sang Richard Strauss – Zueignung and Cäcilie – he reminded us of his gifts for the long phrase, and for powerful expression, in whichever language. Tom Lehrer’s Masochism Tango had Spence rotating and boogying across the stage, bristling and masterful. In the midst of all came Noël Coward’s Any Little Fish. Only Nicky Spence could persuade a self-respecting Oxford audience to buzz, quack, woof, moo and coo along. It was over too soon.

Discography