Julian Tovey
MA (Oxon), MLitt
Julian has taught at the RCS for more than ten years. His students have won major scholarships to leading conservatories around the world, as well as going on to sign with companies such as the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Scottish Opera, Gothenburg Opera, and National Theater Mannheim.
Julian’s approach to teaching is informed by his own experience as a performer and the need to equip young singers with the technical security and self-knowledge to allow them to achieve their creative potential. In 2018, Julian was invited to lecture and give workshops at the University of Performing Arts and Music in Vienna. He is currently working on a project which explores the musical milieu of Edward Clark and his teacher Arnold Schoenberg.
Julian Tovey was born in North Yorkshire. He studied Law and Modern History at Exeter College, Oxford and undertook research in Cultural History at the University of St Andrews. He trained as a singer at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester.
Julian has worked in many of the world’s most important opera houses with leading theatre-makers and conductors. He made his debut at La Scala, Milan as the protagonist in Lorin Maazel’s opera 1984 in a production by Robert Lepage. He sang the title role in Wozzeck in St Gallen and Tel Aviv and performed in productions of Salome at the Netherlands Opera and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. His debut in the United States was as Orest (Elektra) in performances with the New York Philharmonic at the Lincoln Center.
Other operatic work has included Trinity Moses (The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) for Israeli Opera, Donner (Das Rheingold) for Canadian Opera Company, and Vlaamse Opera (Dir. Ivo van Hove), L’Opera National du Rhin (Dir. David McVicar) and Tyroler Festspiele, Conte Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) for Garsington Opera, Bonze in Anthony Minghella’s production of Madam Butterfly at English National Opera, Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore) in Oporto and Escamillo (Carmen) and Zweite Kamerad in Keith Warner’s production of Der Silbersee for Wexford Festival Opera. World premieres have included the role of the protagonist in Vacchi’s Lo Stesso Mare at Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari (designed by Gae Aulenti), Theseus in Edward Rushton’s Birds, Barks, Bones at the Cheltenham International Festival and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Bermel’s Natural Selection with the RLPO.
He has wide experience in the world of musicals and operetta. He sang the title role in Ludwig II: Sehnsucht nach dem Paradies for three years (“The Cultural Event of 2000”, Le Figaro) and
recorded it for Universal Records. Other work has included Obolski (Das Feuerwerk) in Wiesbaden, Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) and Danilo (Die Lustige Witwe) in Oporto and Captain and Maximilian (Candide) RLPO and Konzerthaus, Vienna.
In the course of a varied career on the concert platform at home and abroad, Julian has performed Carmina Burana with the RSNO, Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem with the RLPO and Messiah
with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Royal Albert Hall), Northern Sinfonia, RLPO and Dunedin Consort and Mahler Symphony 8 in the Royal Festival Hall. He sang the title role in Schumann’s Faust Szenen in Liederhalle, Stuttgart and Tonhalle, Zurich and performed in concerts with Orchestra of the Community of Valencia, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Münchener Symphoniker, North Netherlands Orchestra and Moscow Symphony Orchestra. He has sung in recitals in Amsterdam, Tokyo, Munich (Residenz) and Las Vegas.