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Biography
William Robert Allenby studied at the
Royal Academy of Music and the RSAMD winning prestigious
scholarships and awards at both establishments. More recently he studied with
Michelle Wegwart and with the recently late American baritone,
Theodor Uppman in New York.
Opera and Contemporary Music
William gained early experience singing with Scottish Opera,
Opera North and the D’Oyly Carte
Opera before joining Glyndebourne Opera in 1993, performing roles in
La Traviata, Arabella and Eugene Onegin and appearing
regularly on Channel 4 TV and at the BBC Proms. Since leaving
Glyndebourne in 1997 he has sung in Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, Spain,
Iceland, Australia, Asia and in the UK. Roles include; Germont Pere La
Traviata (Buxton Opera H’se), Araspe Tolomeo (Handel)
(Musiktheater Transparent- Antwerp), Morales Carmen
(Opera Ireland), Alfio Cavalleria Rusticana (Saigon
Opera House and Vietnamese National TV), Marullo Rigoletto
(Bermuda Festival) and Belcore L’elisir d’amore and Assan in
Simon Callow’s highly acclaimed production of The Consul, both for
Opera Holland Park in London. He has worked regularly at English
National Opera since 1999 and has also sung Marcello La Boheme for
the ENO Bayliss Project. In contemporary music he has made many
appearances including; Judge Parke in ‘The Blackened Man’ by Will
Todd (World Premiere), Duke
of Cornwall in ‘Vision of Lear’ by Toshio Hosakawa (UK Premiere),
both at the Linbury Studio, ROH Covent Garden and Title Role, ‘The
Blind Man’ for Alexander Goehr at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge. He also
covered Barney Bagnal, ‘The Silver Tassie’ (World Premiere) for
ENO.
Recitals, Chamber Music and Oratorio
William Robert Allenby formed the
Allenby/Jaekel duo with pianist Peter Jaekel in 1988 making many concert
appearances around the country including; Leighton House, London (English
Song Festival) in addition to Television appearances for Yorkshire TV and
ITV. They made their US Recital debut in 2002 at St Mark’s Church in the
Bowery, New York with support from the Concordia Foundation.
William has a vast concert repertoire including; the
Faure Requiem (London Philarmonic Choir), Handel’s Messiah (St Mary’s,
Edinburgh), Carmina Burana and Belshazzar’s Feast (Ulster Hall, Belfast), the
Durufle and Brahms Requiems and the Haydn Seasons. He has also appeared at some
of the worlds leading Early Music Festivals (including Holland, Italy,
France and Antwerp) with the renowned Italian music ensemble Mala Punica,
under the direction of Pedro Memelsdorff.
Radio Broadcasts and Light Music
Since 1989 William has been a regular soloist and
recording artist for BBC Radio and is a regular star singer on the BBC’s
longest running light-music programme on BBC Radio 2, ‘Friday Night is Music
Night’.
William has travelled the world presenting and devising many
concerts and performing recitals aboard many leading ocean liners
including the QE2 and was invited to headline for the inaugural season on
the new Queen Mary 2. He has also appeared with orchestras at home and
abroad including: BBC Concert
Orchestra, Iceland Symphony, Royal Philarmonic, RTE Concert Orchestra,
Philarmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria and the London
Philarmonic.
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