14 Facts About Iestyn Davies

Iestyn Davies began singing countertenor in his teens, at Wells Cathedral School.

Iestyn Davies returned to St John's College as a choral scholar, graduating in Archaeology and Anthropology.

Iestyn Davies gained his DipRAM from, and was later appointed ARAM by, the Royal Academy of Music.

Iestyn Davies' father Ioan was a long-standing cellist with the Fitzwilliam Quartet, which was founded by Cambridge students, and a member of St John's College.

Iestyn Davies has sung Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream for Houston Grand Opera, Apollo in Britten's Death in Venice for English National Opera and Hamor in Handel's Jephtha for both Welsh National Opera and Opera National de Bordeaux.

Iestyn Davies returned to the Met in 2020 in another Handel opera, Agrippina, in which he sang the role of Ottone.

Iestyn Davies has appeared in concert at Teatro alla Scala with Gustavo Dudamel, at the Concertgebouw and the Tonhalle with Ton Koopman, at the Barbican, the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and Lincoln Center, and at the Royal Albert Hall in the BBC Proms.

Iestyn Davies was the guest soloist in Leonard Bernstein's 'Chichester Psalms' at the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in September 2013.

Iestyn Davies sang his first full operatic performance for La Scala in Death in Venice.

Iestyn Davies is reprising the role he played at Shakespeare's Globe and in London's West End.

In February 2022, Iestyn Davies sang in a performance of Bach's Mass in B minor with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Richard Egarr.

Iestyn Davies was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2012.

Iestyn Davies was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to music.

Iestyn Davies has an extensive and growing discography including a Wigmore Live CD of a 2009 recital with his own Ensemble Guadagni and three recordings as a treble chorister.