Robert Murray

Robert Murray studied at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. He was a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Operatic roles include: Tamino Die Zauberflöte, Lysander A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Agenore Il re pastore, Belfiore La finta giardiniera, Jacquino Fidelio and Don Ottavio Don Giovanni for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the title role in Albert Herring for Glyndebourne Touring Opera; Offenbach’s Vert-Vert, Piquillo La Périchole, Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress and Jupiter Semele for Garsington Opera; Ferrando Così fan tutte for Opera North; Male Chorus Rape of Lucretia for Den Norske Oper and Opéra de Nantes; The Simpleton Boris Godunov, Tamino, Toni Reischmann Henze’s Elegy For Young Lovers, Idamante Idomeneo, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Steuermann Der Fliegende Hollaender and Frederic in Pirates of Penzance for English National Opera; Gérald Lakmé for Opera Holland Park; Benvolio Romeo et Juliette at the Salzburg Festival; the title role in Jephtha for Welsh National Opera and the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston; Earl of Essex in Britten’s Gloriana in his debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg and Bob Boles Peter Grimes in Aldeburgh, as part of their Britten centenary celebrations.

Concert performances include Haydn’s Nelson Mass with Sir John Eliot Gardiner for the BBC Proms, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras and with Le Concert D’Astrée under Emmanuelle Haïm, the Evangelist in Bach’s Johannes-Passion for the London Handel Festival, Damon Acis and Galatea, Berlioz’s Grand Messe des Morts, Handel’s Saul , Haydn’s Creation (at the Gstaad Festival) and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (BBC Proms) with the Gabrieli Consort & Players, and Mozart Requiem at London’s Barbican Mostly Mozart Festival with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. At the Aldeburgh Festival, he has performed Britten’s War Requiem with Simone Young, and Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers with the CBSO under Thomas Adès. At the Edinburgh Festival, he has performed in Strauss’s Elektra with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Edward Gardner, Haydn’s Die sieben letzten Worte des Erlösers am Kreuze with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Delius’ Mass of Life with Sir Andrew Davis and Purcell’s King Arthur with The Sixteen and Harry Christophers. Other concert work includes Tristan und Isolde under Valery Gergiev and Bach’s St Matthew Passion under Yannick Nezet-Seguin, both with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, semi-staged performances of Berg’s Wozzeck in London and Paris with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esk-Pekka Salonen, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Orchestre National de Lyon under Paul McCreesh, Written on Skin at New York’s Lincoln Center with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Alan Gilbert), and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Edward Gardner conducting the CBSO.

In recital, he has performed at the Newbury, Two Moors, Brighton and Aldeburgh festivals, and at London’s Wigmore Hall. In recording, he appears on Malcolm Martineau’s Complete Poulenc Songs series for Signum, excerpts from Britten’s Gloriana with Ed Gardner for Chandos, Mendelssohn's Elijah and Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts with the Gabrieli Consort & Players, Giacomo Carissimi's Jephte with La Nuova Musica and David Bates, and Stanford's Stabat Mater with The Bach Choir conducted by David Hill. Robert regularly collaborates with Bjarte Eike and Barroksolistene in performances of Die schöne Müllerin and The Alehouse Sessions. He also works with the unconducted orchestra Spira Mirabilis, in performances of Britten's Nocturne (Aldeburgh Festival) and Così fan tutte (Formigine).

Recent highlights include a tour of Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music, Creation with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and with the LSO under Edward Gardner, and Bob Boles Peter Grimes at the Edinburgh Festival. This season he sings Tom Rakewell at the Wilton’s Music Hall with Laurence Cummings conducting, returns to ENO as Flute A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and performs in a staging of the St John Passion by Calixto Bieito in Bilbao; in concert he appears with the Boston Philharmonic (Benjamin Zander), Gabrieli Consort (Paul McCreesh) and Handel & Haydn Society (Harry Christophers).