Revered British baritone Simon Keenlyside was born in London. He appears at the world’s most celebrated opera houses and has a particularly close association with the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Bayerische and Wiener Staatsopers, where his roles include Prospero The Tempest, Posa Don Carlo, Père Germont La Traviata, Papageno The Magic Flute, Count Almaviva and the title roles in Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Pelléas et Mélisande, Wozzeck, Billy Budd, Hamlet, Macbeth and Rigoletto.
Simon began his 2020/21 season with Wozzeck at the Bayerische Staatsoper and he will return to Munich later in the season for appearances as Macbeth, Amfortas Parsifal and Père Germont La Traviata. Other season highlights will include Don Carlo at the Opernhaus Zurich, concert performances with the Bayerische Rundfunk Munich under Franz Welser-Möst and Brahms Requiem under Zubin Mehta at the Teatro alla Scala Milan. A renowned recitalist, Simon appears regularly at such major international recital venues as Wigmore Hall, Palau de les Arts Valencia, Teatro alla Scala, La Monnaie, Wiener Konzerthaus, Musikverein Vienna, Opernhaus Zurich and many more. Simon also enjoys extensive concert work and has sung under the baton of many of the world’s leading conductors, appearing with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the City of Birmingham, London Symphony, Philharmonia and Cleveland Orchestras, and the Czech, Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras.
Simon’s extensive discography includes a disc of Schumann Lieder with Graham Johnson and four recital discs with Malcolm Martineau – Schubert, Strauss, Brahms and an English song disc, Songs of War, which won the Solo Vocal Award at the 2012 Gramophone Awards. He has also recorded Britten’s War Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra under Noseda, Mendelssohn’s Elijah under McCreesh, Des Knaben Wunderhorn under Rattle, the title role in Macbeth under Gardner, the title role in Don Giovanni under Abbado, Carmina Burana under Thielemann, Marcello La Bohème under Chailly, the title role in Billy Budd under Hickox, Papageno The Magic Flute under Mackerras, Count Almaviva in the Grammy award-winning Le Nozze di Figaro under Jacobs and Prospero in Adès’ The Tempest, which won the Best Opera Recording (Grammy Awards 2013) and Music DVD Recording of the Year (Echo Klassik Awards 2014).
Simon was made a CBE in 2003 and received a knighthood in the June 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours. In 2017, he was awarded the title of Austrian Kammersänger at the Vienna State Opera. He won the 2006 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and in 2007 he was given the ECHO Klassik award for male Singer of the Year.
