Gerald Finley

Biography

Gerald Finley began singing as a chorister in Ottawa, Canada, and completed his musical studies in the UK at the Royal College of Music, King’s College, Cambridge, and the National Opera Studio with the support of the Friends of Covent Garden, the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Keith B. Poole Scholarship and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. He was a winner of Glyndebourne’s John Christie Award and is a Visiting Professor and Fellow of the Royal College of Music.

He has worked with the following, among other, outstanding conductors: Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink, Alan Gilbert and Antonio Pappano.

In opera, Mr Finley has sung all the major baritone roles of Mozart. His Don Giovanni has been seen in New York, London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Prague, Tel Aviv and Budapest, with further appearances to include Glyndebourne and Munich as well as Japan. As the Count in Le nozze di Figaro, his appearances include the Royal Opera Covent Garden (Best Opera DVD 2008), Salzburg Festival, Paris, Amsterdam, with further appearances at the Metropolitan Opera New York. Ha sang Eugene Onegin, and Yeletsky at Covent Garden, and Onegin at English National Opera. His portrayal of Golaud in Pelleas et Melisande at Covent Garden, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, won him a nomination for Outstanding Achievement In Opera at the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards.

In contemporary opera, Mr Finley has created leading roles, most notably J. Robert Oppenheimer in John Adam’s Doctor Atomic (New York Met, San Francisco, Chicago and Amsterdam). For creating the role of Harry Heegan in Mark Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie at ENO, he earned a nomination at the 2000 Olivier Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Singers. He took the lead role of Jaufre Rudel in Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin for the premieres in Santa Fe, Paris and Helsinki. In addition, Mr Finley created the role of Mr. Fox in Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox in Los Angeles. At Glyndebourne, his roles have ranged from Figaro to Nick Shadow and Owen Wingrave.

In recent seasons, he has premiered new works for Baritone and Large Ensemble written by Mark Anthony Turnage called The Torn Fields and When I Woke (these available on the LPO Live label), as well as a new piece Reflections on L’amour de loin by Saariaho. He is a frequent guest of many orchestras throughout Europe and the US. Recently released are his recordings of Mozart’s Requiem and Handel's Messiah with Nikolaus Harnoncourt for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Britten’s War Requiem with the LPO and Kurt Masur for Chandos, and LSO Live’s Beethoven 9th Symphony with Bernard Haitink. His Chandos CD of Stanford’s Songs of the Sea, with Richard Hickox and the National Orchestra of Wales, received the Editor’s Choice Award at 2006 Classic FM Gramophone Awards.

As a recitalist, he works regularly with Julius Drake, appearing throughout Europe and North America, and is a frequent guest at the Wigmore Hall. Recital appearances have included Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, San Francisco and at New York’s Carnegie-Zankel Hall, Vienna, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall.

Mr Finley’s recent CD albums included songs of Barber and Ives, in continuing partnership with Julius Drake on the Hyperion label. Songs by Samuel Barber won the Best Solo Vocal Recording category of the 2008 Classic FM Gramophone Awards, and the Charles Ives Songs Romanzo di Central Park was nominated in the same category. In 2006 and 2008, he was nominated "Artist of the Year". At the 2008 Canadian Juno Awards he received two nominations in the 'Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral Performance' category, in a nod to his contribution to the CD Schubert Among Friends (Marquis Classics) along with the Songs by Samuel Barber. His disk of Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel (CBC Records) with pianist Stephen Ralls won the 1997 Juno Award.

Hyperion Records has recently released a CD of Dichterliebe and other Heine settings by Schumann, achieving much international critical success. He has also recently released a recording on the Wigmore Live label, the 25th of their series, of songs by Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Rorem.

Film credits include Owen in Channel 4’s film of Britten’s Owen Wingrave, BBC2’s The Holocaust – a Music Memorial film, filmed at Auschwitz in 2004, and In Search of Mozart, by Seventh Art Productions. He also appears in the film Wonders are Many, a film of the making of the opera Doctor Atomic.