Biography
The Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel rose to prominence when he won the Lieder Prize in the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Subsequent awards include ‘Male Artist of the Year’ in the 2005 Classical Brit Awards, ‘Male Artist of the Year’ and ‘Album of the Year’ for the platinum selling disk ‘Bryn’ in the 2004 Classical Brit Awards, the Prix Caecilia in 2003 for his recording of Wagner Arias under Claudio Abbado, ‘Male Artist of the Year’ in the 2000 Classical Brit Awards, BBC Music Magazine ‘Artist of the Year’ in 1999, the ‘People’s Award’ in 1996 Gramophone Awards, the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal performance and the Gramophone Awards 1995 for his album An Die Musik.
He has performed in all the great opera houses of the world, and is especially recognised for his portrayals of Figaro and Falstaff. Other roles include Méphistophélès in Faust, both the Title Role and Leporello in Don Giovanni, Jochanaan in Salome, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, Balstrode in Peter Grimes, Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore and the Title Role in Sweeney Todd. Bryn is known for his versatility as a performer, with highlights ranging from the Last Night of the Proms to singing at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Rugby World Cup and performing at the Royal Variety Performance in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales. He has given recitals in many of the major cities of the World, and also hosts his own festival every year in Faenol, North Wales, which won the Wales Tourism Awards’ title ‘Greatest Show in Wales – Event of the Year’ in 2002.
His versatility is also demonstrated in his numerous recordings which range from Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Schumann’s Liederkreis and Verdi’s Falstaff to Something Wonderful - a collection of songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein, his gold-selling album, We’ll Keep a Welcome – a collection of traditional Welsh songs, his platinum-selling album ‘Bryn’ to his most recent release Silent Noon, a collection of English Songs.
In the last year, Bryn made his role début as Wotan in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in the Royal Opera House’s production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, and his house débuts as Falstaff for Houston Grand Opera and Los Angeles Opera. Bryn recently appeared in the Royal Variety Performance at the Wales Millennium centre in Cardiff, in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen, and in 2006 he returns to Welsh National Opera as Holländer in Der fliegende Holländer.
In 2003, Bryn was awarded a CBE for services to Opera in the Queen’s New Year Honours list.