Allan Clayton is an internationally renowned tenor, known for his magnetic stage presence and extraordinarily flexible and consistent vocal range in repertoire from the Baroque through to works by the leading composers of today. He appears regularly at the world’s preeminent venues and festivals, including Snape Maltings where his first appearance was in 2005 as Albert Herring on the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme.

Recent highlights include the world premiere of Brett Dean’s Hamlet (Glyndebourne, and then at the Metropolitan Opera New York, Munich and Sydney), Handel’s Jephtha (Covent Garden), Peter Grimes (London, Madrid, New York, Paris and Rome), Faust in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust (Glyndebourne), Purcell’s Miranda (Opéra comique, Paris), an Australian tour of a staged Schubert’s Winterreise featuring the work of Australian painter Fred Williams, and the premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Silenced, at Britten Pears Arts.

Deeply committed to contemporary music, Allan has given the first performances of works by George Benjamin, Jonathan Dove and Gerald Barry, and several composers have written song cycles specifically with his voice in mind – notably Josephine Stevenson in Une saison en enfer and Turnage in Refugee (2018), which sets poetry by Dickinson, Zephaniah, Auden and Brian Bilston. This season sees him return to the Royal Opera House for Turnage’s new opera Festen.

Allan Clayton begins his Festival residency with his favourite Britten song cycle, Nocturne, performed with the Knussen Chamber Orchestra.

The Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra shares the stage with Clayton for a concert which includes Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Refugee, a piece written especially for him.

Clayton gives a world premiere of a new work from Tom Coult, alongside an achingly beautiful Lamentations setting by Jan Dismas Zelenka, performed with the Dunedin Consort.

Clayton performs Britten once again, with a rendition of Our Hunting Fathers, Britten’s haunting setting of W.H. Auden's poetry, performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Acclaimed pianist, Antonio Pappano accompanies Clayton for a performance of Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michaelangelo.