From a sheep farm in the Welsh hills to the Last Night of the Proms, La Scala and the Met, Bryn Terfel is a bass-baritone who is on the move, conquering the foremost operatic and recital stages around the world. For the past several years, Bryn Terfel has been the most talked-about singer in music circles, and his 1989 Metropolitan Opera début was reported on the front page of the New York Times, an honour only previously accorded an arts story when Vladimir Horowitz made his comeback some twenty years ago. His meteoric rise is credited to a vocal and stage craft that dominates and inspires, an engaged and dramatic interpretation of the lieder and operatic repertoire, and above all an energy and a sense of sheer enjoyment that stems from a philosphy that the audience isn't there for an ordeal. He clearly projects something special and it is his communication and passion that make a performance by him a great event.

Bryn Terfel was born in Wales in 1965 and studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London. While there he was awarded the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship, and in 1989, the year of his graduation, he won the School's Gold Medal for its best singer. In the same year he represented Wales in the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and won the lieder prize. In 1990 he made his opera début as Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Welsh National Opera, also performing the latter role with the English National Opera in 1991 and in his American début at the Santa Fe Opera. At the Salzburg Festival in 1992 Bryn Terfel's acclaimed début as Jochanaan in Strauss's Salome was followed by invitations to sing at the major opera companies in London, Paris, Amsterdam and in Vienna, where he triumphed as Figaro in 1993. That year he returned to the Welsh National Opera to sing Ford in Falstaff; in 1994 he sang Figaro at Covent Garden and at his highly acclaimed Metropolitan Opera début. He has taken part in numerous concerts and oratorio performances throughout Europe and in North America. At Chicago's Ravinia Festival, under James Levine, he has sung in Mahler's Eighth Symphony, a work he later recorded for Deutsche Grammophon with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1994 he gave recitals in London's Wigmore Hall, at the Salzburg Festival and in Florence, and he made his USA recital début in Alice Tully Hall, New York. He also appears regularly on both television and radio and has hosted his own shows on BBC 2 Wales and HTV. Terfel's other recordings for Deutsche Grammophon include a number of complete operas: Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel (Servant and Wissmann) with Neeme Järvi, Strauss's Salome (Jochanaan) and Puccini's Tosca (Angelotti) under Sinopoli and Lehar's The Merry Widow (The Baron) under Gardiner. For Archiv Produktion, also with Gardiner, he has recorded Mozart's Figaro and sung in Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610. Also in his discography are Mahler's Kindertotenlieder under Sinopoli, the Wagner Gala Concert recorded live on New Year's Eve 1993 with the Berlin Philharmonic under Abbado, and two recitals - Schubert lieder and English songs - with the pianist Malcolm Martineau.

(notes courtesy of DG recording of Bryn Terfel Opera Arias and Vancouver Recital Society)