Toby Spence is a British tenor who established a solid career, particularly in the fields of early opera and concert singing, in the late 1990s, before broadening his repertoire in the new century.
He was a choral scholar at New College, Oxford, graduating with honors and then attending the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. While still a student, he made his debut at London's Barbican Centre singing in
Sibelius' incidental music to The Tempest with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under
Neeme Järvi; sung with the RIAS Berlin in
Handel's Theodora; toured with the Mark Morris Dance Group Dance Umbrella singing in
Brahms' Liebeslieder-Walzer; made his Wigmore Hall, London, recital debut in the Schubertiade Series; and sang at the Cheltenham and Brighton Festivals. He also won a scholarship to study in 1995 at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago.
While in the United States he made a concert debut with the
Cleveland Orchestra under
Christoph von Dohnanyi and then, in the same debut season, appeared with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under
Richard Hickox; with
John Eliot Gardiner and the
Monteverdi Choir and
Orchestra; and other UK orchestras. Also that year, he sang in two major oratorio performances:
Haydn's The Creation and
Bach's St. Matthew Passion, both with Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.
His operatic debut with the Welsh National Opera also took place in the 1995/1996 season, singing the role of Idamante in
Mozart's Idomeneo, which he repeated at the Bavarian State Opera. That was quickly and steadily followed by several other opera debuts in Europe. He created the role of Ferdinand in
Thomas Adès The Tempest in 2004 at Covent Garden, and in the 2005/2006 season first took on the role of Tom Rakewell, which has become one of his favored roles.
He has appeared in concert with many prestigious orchestras and conductors, including the
Rotterdam Philharmonic under
Gergiev, the San Francisco Symphony with Tilson Thomas conducting, and at the BBC Proms concerts. He also performs recitals, when his schedule allows it.
In 2011,
Spence was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, the treatment for which involved surgery very close to his vocal cords. Luckily, with rehabilitation, he regained his voice and was performing again in
Adès' The Tempest a year later.
His recordings include a Philips release of the St. Matthew Passion performance with
Brüggen, and
Mahler's Lied von der Erde with
Nézet-Séguin. He has appeared on the Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, EMI, Decca, and BMG-RCA labels.