IestynDavies

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Countertenor
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Nicholas Moloney

Nicholas Moloney

Senior Artist Manager
Ivo Ivanov

Ivo Ivanov

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

About Iestyn

An esteemed interpreter of Handel, Iestyn Davies begins the 24/25 season singing Didymus in Theodora at Teatro Real Madrid and with Music of the Baroque, Chicago; before delving into other works by the composer including David in Saul at the Glyndebourne Festival; Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and Dixit Dominus with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Emmanuelle Haim, Messiah with les Violons du Roy and Bernard Labadie, and arias on tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Robin Ticciati.

In other repertoire, Iestyn will tour Monteverdi's Poppea with Cappella Mediterranea and Leonardo Garcia Alracon in Europe, and J.C. Bach, Scheidt, Schein, Buxtehude and more with Fretwork in the U.S. and Canada.

In recent seasons, he sang Bertarido in Rodelinda on tour in the U.S.A. and Asia with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, made his role debut at the Paris Opera as Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare, sang Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Atlanta Opera and at Garsington Opera, and the Boy in George Benjamin's Written on Skin with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In August, he made his Australian debut singing J.S. Bach and Arvo Pärt in an extensive solo tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Iestyn appeared for a season on Broadway in a revival of his West-End theatre project Farinelli and the King with Mark Rylance, which received an Olivier Award nomination. Fascinated by blending traditional theatre with musical performance, Iestyn has also developed a new work with director Netia Jones, An Anatomy of Melancholy: an exploration of John Dowland’s impactful melodies and Robert Burton’s 17th-century treatise on the philosophy, scholarship, and cures for a melancholic affliction.

A celebrated recitalist with repertoire ranging from Dowland to Clapton, he has twice been awarded the Gramophone Recital Award. In 2017, he won the Gramophone Baroque Vocal Award and was awarded an MBE by the Queen for his services to Music.

Iestyn is based in London

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Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Season Highlights

Nov 2024 - Nov 2024
Teatro Real Madrid
Handel Theodora (Didymus) Ivor Bolton (conductor)
Nov 2024 - Dec 2024
U.S.A. and Canada tour
J.C. Bach, Tunder, Scheidt, Schein, Buxtehude and more Fretwork
Dec 2024 - Dec 2024
Palais Montcalm, Quebec
Handel Messiah Bernard Labadie (conductor) Les Violons du Roy

Selected Repertoire

AdèsThe Exterminating Angel (Francisco)   •   The Tempest (Trinculo)
BenjaminWritten on Skin (First Angel/Boy)
BrittenA Midsummer Night's Dream (Oberon)
GluckOrfeo ed Euridice (Orfeo)
HandelAgrippina (Ottone)   •   Ariodante (Polinesso)   •   Cesare (Cesare, Tolomeo)   •   Jephtha (Hamor)   •   L'incoronazione di Poppea (Ottone)   •   Partenope (Arsace)   •   Rinaldo (title role)   •   Rodelinda (Bertarido)   •   Saul (David)   •   Semele (Athamas)   •   Theodora (Didymus)
MonteverdiL'incoronazione di Poppea (Ottone)
MozartMitridate, re di Ponto (Farnace)
MuhlyMarnie (Terry Rutland)
VivaldiOrlando Furioso (Ruggiero)
A laboratory scene, with two performers and four projection screens

Projects

An Anatomy of Melancholy

Netia Jones directs a Barbican London production, blending John Dowland's poignant music with Robert Burton's 17th-century treatise The Anatomy of Melancholy. This intimate meditation on sorrow features Iestyn Davies's crystalline voice and lutenist Sergio Bucheli. The performance, inspired by Burton, Freud, and modern emotion experts, combines visuals with Dowland's music. Currently developing international tours for 2025/2026 and beyond.

Learn about this project
  • A laboratory scene, with two performers and four projection screens

    Projects

    An Anatomy of Melancholy

    Netia Jones directs a Barbican London production, blending John Dowland's poignant music with Robert Burton's 17th-century treatise The Anatomy of Melancholy. This intimate meditation on sorrow features Iestyn Davies's crystalline voice and lutenist Sergio Bucheli. The performance, inspired by Burton, Freud, and modern emotion experts, combines visuals with Dowland's music. Currently developing international tours for 2025/2026 and beyond.

    Learn about this project

News

Press

  • Silence and Rapture (Australian Chamber Orchestra & Sydney Dance Company)

    City Recital Hall, Sydney
    Aug 2024
    • The participation of British countertenor Iestyn Davies introduced a third transcendent element. Davies, making his Australian debut, sang with pure, radiant expression and was a poignant presence as he moved with the dancers and around the stage. His account of a setting by Pärt of the Lord’s Prayer, in a version made specially for the ACO, was sublime.

    • Davies, making his much anticipated Australian debut, did not disappoint, his rich and beautiful tone swelling through the packed auditorium in the concert played straight through without applause until the end 70 minutes later. His rendition of the aria Embarme Dich from Bach’s St Matthew Passion was a time-stopping six minutes that will live long in the memory.

    • But we haven’t even got to what was most remarkable about Silence & Rapture. English countertenor Iestyn Davies was guest artist in many of the items, which included movements from Bach cantatas and “Erbarme Dich” from the St Matthew Passion. Davies carries a formidable reputation, as early music followers will tell you, and there’s a reason. There’ve been many fine countertenors in recent years, but simply none finer than Davies. He is astonishing. Tone colour and diction perfectly converge, whether it is Baroque arias or songs of Pärt. With vocal chords that are particularly open and resonant, he is able to develop a sound that is both natural and well projected. Could “Erbarme Dich” or Pärt’s pulsating “My Heart in the Highlands” have sounded better? No. It was divinely beautiful – one wanted his every breath to last forever.

    • For opera and choral fans, British countertenor Iestyn Davies makes a striking Australian debut. Blessed with a rich, velvety lower register and an upper voice of soaring molten gold, Davies shines in the more lyrical, sensuous pieces where his sustained notes bloom like growing day break.

      • John Shand, The Sydney Morning Herald
      • 01 August 2024