English tenor Toby Spence grew up in London and read Music at New College, Oxford. He went on to study with David Pollard at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and made his professional debut as Idamante (Idomeneo) with Welsh National Opera. He sings regularly with English National Opera, where his many roles include Lensky Eugene Onegin, Tamino Die Zauberflöte, Faust and Candide. Engagements elsewhere include Don Ottavio Don Giovanni and Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw for Glyndebourne Festival, Tom Rakewell The Rake's Progress for Teatro Real and Theater an der Wien, Pylade Iphigénie en Tauride for Hamburg State Opera, Laërte Hamlet, Antonio The Tempest and Tamino for the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Tito La clemenza di Tito for Bavarian State Opera and Vienna State Opera and Henry Morosus Die schweigsame Frau in Munich.

Toby Spence made his Royal Opera debut in 1996 as Ovando Alzira. His many Royal Opera roles since include Simpleton Boris Godunov, Ferdinand The Tempest, Count Almaviva Il barbiere di Siviglia, Vána Kudrjáš Kát’a Kabanová, Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress, David Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex Gloriana, and Song of the Earth for The Royal Ballet. In the 2014/15 Season he returns to sing Tamino Die Zauberflöte.

Spence regularly sings in concert and recital, in repertory including Bach’s St John Passion, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Britten’sWar Requiem. In 2012 he founded the recital series Wardsbrook Concerts with his brother Magnus. Awards include the 2011 Royal Philharmonic Society Singer of the Year.