ALLAN CLAYTON TENOR
Allan Clayton studied at St John’s College, Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he was the recipient of numerous awards, including an inaugural Sir Elton John Scholarship. Upon graduation he was awarded The Queen’s Commendation for Excellence, the RAM’s most prestigious prize, and two years later was appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Allan was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2007-2009, the recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2008, and the following year he was nominated for both the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award and the South Bank Show Breakthrough Award.
On stage, Allan’s roles include Ferrando/Così fan tutte (Glyndebourne Festival 2010 with Sir Charles Mackerras); Bénédict/Béatrice et Bénédict (Opéra Comique, Paris); Lysander/A Midsummer Night’s Dream (English National Opera); Belmonte/Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Camille/Die Lüstige Witwe, Lampwick in Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, and Ferrando (all at Opera North); the title role in Albert Herring for Glyndebourne Festival (for which he received the 2008 John Christie Award) and at the Opéra Comique.
Recent concert engagements have included Allan’s debut with the London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Colin Davis as Cassio in concert performances of Otello, a tour of South America with the Britten Sinfonia and Die Schöpfung at this year’s Bregenz Festival. He has appeared with most of the UK’s leading orchestras in a wide variety of repertoire, including Il Tabarro at the BBC Proms (BBC Philharmonic/Gianandrea Noseda), Purcell’s The Indian Queen for the Edinburgh Festival, The Dream of Gerontius with the Bach Choir, and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra/Paul Daniel at the Royal Festival Hall. Allan’s concert appearances abroad have included his debut with the New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert (Mendelssohn’s Elijah), Britten’s War Requiem at the Sydney Opera House, Messiah with the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston’s Symphony Hall and Les Illuminations at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires.
Allan has appeared in recital with Paul Lewis at the Cheltenham Festival (Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin), at the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia, with Malcolm Martineau at the Aldeburgh Festival and he also performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall. He has been fortunate to work with many outstanding accompanists, including James Baillieu, Julius Drake, Graham Johnson, Simon Lepper, Joseph Middleton and Roger Vignoles on repertoire such as Winterreise, Vaughan Williams’s On Wenlock Edge and the songs of Wolf, Britten and Duparc amongst others. Allan’s recitals are regularly broadcast on the BBC.
Recordings include a Gramophone-nominated Otello with the LSO, Handel’s Messiah for EMI (which was also broadcast live to cinemas worldwide), Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, Britten’s Michelangelo Sonnets with Malcolm Martineau, and Joshua (London Handel Society/Lawrence Cummings). For Hyperion he has recorded Lukasewski’s Via Crucis and the Messiah with the Britten Sinfonia, and next year he will record Benjamin Britten’s St Nicolas.
Allan’s future engagements include Castor in Rameau’s Castor & Pollux at ENO, performances of Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ with the Britten Sinfonia/Sir Mark Elder, Handel’s Samson in Cape Town and his debut with New York City Opera in a new production of Così fan tutte.