Andrew Rees hails from Wales. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, and completed his studies on the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London in 2001.
He was invited to join the Jerwood Young Singers Programme at English National Opera direct from college and between 2004 and 2006 became a full company principal. During his time at ENO, Andrew appeared in the British Premiere of Poul Ruders’ The Handmaids Tale singing the role of Luke. Other operas performed in at ENO include War and Peace, Khovanshchina, La Traviata, Tosca, Billy Budd, Salome, La Vestale, The Rhinegold and Falstaff. Andrew has worked under directors such as Francesca Zambello, David McVicar, Phyllida Lloyd, Tim Alberry, Jonathan Miller, and Keith Warner. Conductors include Mark Wigglesworth, Elgar Howarth, Oleg Caetani, Kwame Ryan, Andrew Litton and Paul Daniel.
Roles elsewhere include Alfredo La Traviata (Mid-Wales Opera) The Lawyer Punch and Judy (Porto) and Pinkerton (Otago Festival), New Zealand. Andrew created the role of Ryan in Jonathan Dove’s opera for Channel 4 television When She Died: Death of a Princess. In 2003 he made a highly successful debut with NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg under Stefan Asbury, singing Walter/Hugo/Old Woman in Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert. In 2004 he made his Swiss debut singing Boris in Janacek’s Katya Kabanova at the Stadttheater St.Gallen under Jiri Kout and recently returned to perform Sergei in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk also under Kout. Andrew made his German operatic debut singing the same role in Weimar in 2006.
After replacing Ben Heppner in Helsinki to sing Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the CBSC under Sakari Oramo, Andrew was invited and performed Cavaradossi Tosca and the Fisherman in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol, both under Oramo.
He has performed at all the major concert halls across London and the UK, performs regularly on Radio 3 and has also appeared at the Newbury Spring Festival, the Henley Festival under Benjamin Zander with the RPO and the North Wales International Music Festival in St. Asaph.
Concert repertoire includes Dvorak Stabat Mater, Beethoven Symphony No.9, Missa Sollennis and Mass in C; Ramirez Missa Creolla; Handel Messiah, Samson; Mozart Requiem, Mass in C minor, Mass in C; Mendelssohn Elijah; Bizet Te Deum; Haydn Creation, Nelson Mass; Liszt Missa Sollennis; Schnittke, Faust Kantate;
Verdi Requiem; Finzi Dies Natalis.
Recent engagements include a concert tour of New Zealand and Australia; Ishmael Nabucco, Opera Holland Park; Silent Twins Various roles (Errollyn Wallen), Almeida Opera; Summer Proms in the Park with the RPO. Future engagements include recording the role of Narraboth, Salome with Sir Charles Mackerras on the Chandos label, Dan Cairo Carmen, Messenger Aida at ENO and Jim ‘Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny’ in Nantes and Lyon.
.jpg)