Joshua Owen Mills

Praised for his “gleaming legato” (The Times), Welsh tenor Joshua Owen Mills is a recipient of Glyndebourne’s Donald Anderson Award. His successes include performances with the Bayerische Staatsoper, Staatstheater Klagenfurt, Garsington Opera, Staatsoper Hannover, and Norrlandsoperan.

Recently, Joshua returned to Jyväskylä Opera as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore and sang Yonas in Saariaho’s Adriana Mater and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. He also appeared with English National Opera as part of the King’s Cross Sounds concert series.

Other notable roles include Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni (Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Theater Klagenfurt), Nemorino (London Festival Opera), Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Staatsoper Hannover, Theater Aachen), Vitellozzo in Lucrezia Borgia (Aalto-Musiktheater Essen), Liverotto at the Bayerische Staatsoper, and Zimoviy Borisovich Ismailow in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Staatstheater Wiesbaden and Klagenfurt).

In 2025, he performed in the German premiere of the James Joyce Songbook alongside Dietrich Henschel at Kühlhaus Berlin, broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and worked closely with Mark-Anthony Turnage in preparation for his new opera The Railway Children, scheduled to premiere at Glyndebourne.

Equally at home in contemporary repertoire, Joshua created the roles of Henry 'Birdie' Bowers in Miroslav Srnka’s South Pole and Hohe Schatten in Hauke Jasper Berheide’s Mauerschau, both at the Bayerische Staatsoper.

On the concert platform, recent engagements include Verdi’s Requiem (Lutherkirche Wiesbaden), Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (St Alban’s Cathedral), Mendelssohn’s Elijah (North Wales International Music Festival), and appearances with orchestras such as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Münchner Symphoniker, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Jyväskylä Symphony Orchestra, Kärntner Symphoniker, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Upcoming appearances include a recital at the Oxford International Song Festival with Schubert & Co, and a return to his hometown as guest soloist with the Neath Polyphonic Choir.

Joshua studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, was a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and a member of the Opera Studio at the Bayerische Staatsoper from 2015 to 2017. A multi award-winning artist, he has received the Glass Sellers Prize for the Guildhall Gold Medal and the Sacred Aria Prize at the National Mozart Competition, among several other national and international awards.

Updated September 2025