John-Colyn Gyeantey
John-Colyn Gyeantey studied at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio as a Peter Moores Foundation Major Scholar. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Accademia Rossiniana, where he worked closely with Alberto Zedda.
Concert appearances include the title roles in Acis and Galatea (The Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace) and Thomas Arne’s Judgment of Paris (Wigmore Hall), Carmina Burana, Messiah, St Matthew Passion for Spanish television, Mozart Requiem (Royal Albert Hall), Mahler Das klagende Lied with the LPO under Vladimir Jurowski (Royal Festival Hall), Haydn Creation (Cairo Opera House) and Haydn Stabat Mater recorded for Luxembourg Radio.
His Rossini roles include Ruodi in Guillaume Tell and Aronne in Mosé in Egitto (covers for Welsh National Opera); Comte Ory in Le Comte Ory (Opera South); Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Diva Opera and Welsh National Opera); Zefirino in Il viaggio a Reims, Adelberto (cover) in Adelaide di Borgogna (both for the Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro); Alberto in L’occasione fa il ladro (OperaMinima); Gernando/Ubaldo in Armida (St John’s, Smith Square). For English Touring Opera, he has sung Arnalta in The Coronation of Poppea and Egeus in Jason by Cavalli.
Other roles include Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni (Mid-Wales Opera); Judge in Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane, recorded for Virgin/EMI with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow (Scottish Opera); Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore (Anghiari Festival, Tuscany). At Glyndebourne, he won the Erich Vietheer Prize and covered Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola.
Gareth Brynmor John
Winner of the 2013 Kathleen Ferrier Award, baritone Gareth Brynmor John held a choral scholarship at St John’s College, Cambridge, before taking a place at London’s Royal Academy of Music (RAM). In his final year, he won the RAM Patrons' Award and was awarded the Silver Medal by the Worshipful Company of Musicians. Gareth was awarded an Independent Opera Postgraduate Voice Fellowship in 2013.
Gareth’s operatic roles with Royal Academy Opera include Eugene Onegin, Claudio (Béatrice et Bénédict) with Sir Colin Davis, The Ferryman (Curlew River), Sprecher (Die Zauberflöte), and Sir Thomas Bertram (Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park). Other roles include Cecil (Maria Stuarda), Papageno (The Magic Flute), Sid (Albert Herring), Gendarme (Les mamelles de Tirésias), Theseus (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Escamillo (Carmen), Eliab (Samuel Hogarth's David and Goliath), and Il Conte (Le nozze di Figaro). He created the character Carl in Stefano Gervasoni's opera buffa Limbus Limbo which premiered in September at the Strasbourg Festival Musica.
Gareth has performed with a number of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles including The Philharmonia, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, The Brandenburg Sinfonia, and Charivari Agréable. Recent concert highlights include Bach’s St Matthew and St John Passions; Elgar's Coronation Ode and Dream of Gerontius; Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, Judas Maccabeus and Alexander’s Feast; Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and Sea Symphony; Rachmaninoff’s The Bells; and Britten's War Requiem.
Gareth has a strong interest in song repertoire and performs in the Songsmiths series at St John's, Smith Square. Gareth gave his debut Wigmore recital earlier this year with a programme including Brahms, Schubert, Vaughan Williams and Ravel. Other recent performances include Britten’s Songs and Proverbs of William Blake at the Wigmore Hall, Brahms’ op. 71 and Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch at the RAM, a recital featuring works of Brahms at King's Place, and various settings of the work of English poet Walter de la Mare as part of the London English Song Festival. He recently recorded the Schoenberg arrangement of the Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Trevor Pinnock and the RAM Soloists Ensemble for future release on the Linn Records label.
Photo © Robert Workman
