BRIAN SMITH WALTERS
spinto tenor
Described by Pierre Boulez as ‘un musicien formidable’ and ‘unflaggingly robust’ by Opera Magazine, tenor Brian Smith Walters is steadily making a name for himself in the Heldentenor fach.
In 2023, he makes his debuts as Andrey in Oprichnik with Chelsea Opera as well as the Prince in The Love of Three Oranges with Regent Opera in Covent Garden. He will also return to Edinburgh to perform the title role in Siegfried with the Edinburgh Players Opera Group.
In 2022, he made his debut as Paul in Erich Korngold‘s Die tote Stadt with Regents Opera and covered the same role with the Longborough Festival Opera. The same year, he sang Siegmund in Die Walküre at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien and with the Edinburgh Players Opera Group as well as Walther von der Vogelweide in Tannhäuser with Saffron Opera Group and act 3 of Siegfried with The London Opera Company.
In 2021 and 2020, he performed Menelas in Richard Strauss’ Die ägyptische Helena and Siegmund (act 1 – online) with Fulham Opera as well as Tristan and another Siegmund, both with The London Opera Company.
Other career highlights of the recent past were Siegmund in Die Walküre (Manhattan Opera at Carnegie Hall), Florestan in Fidelio (Siegfried Camerata), Samson in Samson et Dalila (Aylesbury Opera), Captain Vere in Billy Budd (South London Opera Group), Mark in Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers (Arcadian Opera), Parsifal (cover)/ First Knight in Parsifal and Tristan (cover) (Saffron Opera Group), Governor/Vanderdendur/Ragotski in Bernstein’s Candide (Surrey Opera), the title role in Peter Grimes (South London Opera Group, Nottingham Philharmonic), Heinrich der Schreiber in Tannhäuser (Longborough Festival Opera), and Don José in Carmen (Silent Opera at the Barbican)
In contemporary music, Brian Smith Walters has premiered various works by Nicola LeFanu, Michael Torke, Domenic Muldowney, and Ailis Ni Riain and has collaborated with Harrison Birtwistle, Oliver Knussen, and Pierre Boulez on performances of their works. As a student, he was the UK’s sole representative to the first Lucerne Festival Academy for contemporary music. He has worked with conductors Valery Gergiev, Sir Mark Elder, and Christoph Eschenbach and performed on BBC Radios 3 and 4, SWR Radio (Switzerland), NDR Radio and Television (Germany), and African Television.
Brian Smith Walters was born in Phoenix, AZ and began his musical career as a French horn player before turning to singing. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the University of the Pacific. In 2020, he was in the live finals of the prestigious Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition.
