An honors graduate and choral scholar from New College, Oxford, Toby Spence studied at the Opera School of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was the winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society 2011 Singer of the Year award.
In concert, Spence has sung with some of the most renowned orchestras, such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He has appeared as a guest soloist at the Easter Festival in Salzburg and the Edinburgh International Festival. He has worked with an impressive array of conductors, such as Christoph von Dohnányi, Sir Simon Rattle, Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Antonio Pappano, Valery Gergiev, Colin Davis, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gustavo Dudamel, Edward Gardner, Roger Norrington and Charles Mackerras.
A prolific recitalist, Spence has given numerous solo recitals for BBC Radio 3 and at London’s Wigmore Hall and has appeared at LSO St. Luke’s, Opera de Lille, at Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of Voice, Janáček's Brno International Music Festival and Aldeburgh Festival. He has made numerous recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, BMG, Philips, Collins, Linn Records, Hyperion and EMI.
Recent concert appearances include his role debut as Hauptmann in Wozzeck with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons in Boston and at Carnegie Hall, a staged Christmas Oratorio at Teatro Arriaga directed by Calixto Bieito, Das Lied von der Erde with Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música Conducted by Stefan Blunier, Jack in Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage with the LPO under Edward Gardner, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Mahler’s Das klagende Lied, and Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the l'Orchestre National de Lyon, The Seasons with the Philharmonie de Paris, Bruckner’s F Minor Mass with the Sinfonieorchester Basel, Das Lied von der Erde with the Budapest Festival Orchestra led by Iván Fischer, Liszt’s Faust Symphony with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Britten’s War Requiem with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Shanghai Symphony conducted by Long Yu for Deutsche Grammophon’s 120th anniversary, Jonathan Dove’s There Was a Child with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Operatic highlights include Aschenbach in Death in Venice for Opéra National du Rhin; Captain Vere in Deborah Warner’s Billy Budd for Teatro Real, Opera di Roma and ROH; Anatol in Vanessa for Frankfurt Opera; Don Ottavio for the Liceu Barcelona; Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus and Antonio in The Tempest for The Metropolitan Opera; Tito, Tamino and Henry Morosus in Die Schweigsame Frau for the Bayerische Staatsoper; Florestan in Fidelio for Garsington Opera and Opera North; Ghandi in Satyagraha at the English National Opera; Don Ottavio and Tito for the Wiener Staatsoper; as well as Tom Rakewell and David in Die Meistersinger for Opéra de Paris. Spence’s longstanding relationship with ROH has seen him sing David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Ferdinand in The Tempest, Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress and Essex in Gloriana.
The 2021–22 season saw several role debuts, including the title role in Parsifal for Opera North, Alwa in Lulu for La Monnaie and Monsieur Taupe in Capriccio at the Bayerische Staatsoper, as well as Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia for Kammerakademie Potsdam. Concert highlights included Bénédict in Béatrice et Bénédict for the Festival de la Côte Saint-André, St. Matthew Passion with the Residentie Orkest in the Netherlands and Britten’s Les Illuminations with Teatro Filarmonico at the Arena di Verona.
Operatic appearances for 2022–23 include role debuts as Alonso in The Tempest for Teatro alla Scala and Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer for Teatro la Fenice. On the concert platform Spence sings Das Lied von der Erde with Orchestre de Lille under Alexandre Bloch, St. Matthew Passion for the Gulbenkian Foundation, Britten’s War Requiem with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The Bells with the Philharmonia Orchestra led by Stanislav Kochanovsky, and the Glagolitic Mass with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner. Further ahead, Spence returns to the Wiener Staatsoper.