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The English-born bass-baritone Simon Dyer, obtained his Bachelor of Music degree from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London (2013). Following this, he did postgraduate studies at the Boston Conservatory, obtaining his Maste of Music degree in opera in 2015 and his Graduate Performance Diploma in Voice Performance in 2017. In master-class, he has worked with Maestro Richard Bonynge, leading singers including, Jay Hunter-Morris, Susan Bullock, Matthew Rose, Yvonne Minton, Brindley Sherratt, Wolfgang Brendel, Sally Burgess, James Bowman and many others, as well as taking part in the British Youth Opera workshop programme and workshopping with director Simon McBurney. He was a Boston district winner and New England Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Awards.
During his undergraduate studies at Trinity Laban, in London, Simon Dyer was a regular performer at Blackheath Halls Community Opera, where he performed the roles of Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin, The Minister of Fun in Cendrillon and The Doctor in Verdi’s Macbeth, all under the baton of Nick Jenkins. He has also sung Micha in The Bartered Bride with Thrapston Plaza Opera, Old Adam in Ruddigore, at Buxton Opera House with Oxbridge Opera, as well as Montano in Otello, which he sang in a concert performance at Blackheath Halls with the St. Paul’s Sinfonia. In the summer of 2012 he worked with Go Opera in their innovative collaboration tour with Peroni, Opera di Peroni, after originally working with them on their 2011 production of La Traviata in a disused warehouse space in Hackney Wick.
Simon Dyer is now based in the USA. He was an Emerging Artist at Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) for their 2016-2017 season, whilst also completing his studies at The Boston Conservatory. He was seen at BLO as the Keeper of the Madhouse in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake’s Progress and Antonio in W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. He also covered Nick Shadow and Figaro in the respective shows. He was a member of the Young Artist Program at the Glimmerglass Festival, where he sang Giorgio in The Thieving Magpie under Maestro Colaneri, as well as covering Rev. John Hale in The Crucible and ensemble in La Boheme. He spent the summer of 2017 as an apprentice singer with The Santa Fe Opera, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Widely considered the country’s top summer opera festival, Dyer describes working directly with some of biggest names in the industry and making meaningful professional and personal connections during the 13-week program.
Other Recent appearances include Melisso in George Frideric Handel's Alcina at the Boston Conservatory. Also in 2016 he was seen as the title role in W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at The Boston Conservatory and a Verdi Requiem in his native London. Other roles at The Boston Conservatory include Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Mustafa in L’italiana in Algeri, Collatinus in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, and The Immigration Officer in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, and Papageno in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, which he has also performed to acclaim in the UK. Since moving across the Atlantic, he has also been seen as Superintendent Budd in B. Britten's Albert Herring with Boston Opera Collaborative, and as Luka in The Bear and Mr. Grinder in The Zoo, with Odyssey Opera. Recent contemporary music highlights include being a featured soloist in Coro by Luciano Berio at the Lucerne Festival under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, and curating an immersive performance art event of John Cage’s Song Books at the Museum of Fine Arts in January 2016 and at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. At the Museum of Fine Arts he also gave a recital in January 2017. He also appears on a CD with Boston Modern Orchestra Project of Virgil Thomson’s Capital Capitals. He was a member of the Florida Grand Opera Studio for the 2017-2018 season, singing Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and 1st Nazarene in Salome.
Often working with living composers, Simon Dyer performed the role of Death in the UK premiere of Gregory Rose’s Danse Macabre, conducted by the composer, with tremendous success; critics stated that he was a singer of “ability and characterising power” and possessed of “a voice of grit, and quite chilling charm”. He sang Common Person Two in the world premiere of It Makes No Difference by Simone Spagnola, for whom he also premiered the piece Lines, for solo violin and narrator. He performed the role of The Judge in Stuart Murray-Mitchell’s opera about the London Riots of 2012, Nobody’s Children, and worked with LSO Soundhub and Size Zero Opera on the project Little Kettlehead. In 2013 he sang with the Philip Glass ensemble for the 75th birthday celebrations of the composer at Barbican Hall in a performance of Koyaanisqatsi, and in a festival event dedicated to the works of John Cage at Trinity Laban where he took part in a performance of the piece A Dinner Party for John Cage by Steven Montague and the work 5 by Cage himself.
Oratorio repertoire includes, Verdi and W.A. Mozart's Requiem Masses, Haydn's The Creation, which he performed at St. John’s Smith Square under the direction of Nicholas Kraemer, G.F. Handel's Messiah, and Christus in J.S. Bach's Johannes-Passion (BWV 245). |
