Opera Scotland

David Wilson-Johnson Suggest updates

Born Northampton, 16 November 1950.

English baritone.

David Wilson-Johnson read French and Italian at Cambridge before studying singing in London at the Royal Academy of Music. His subsequent career included concert appearances with most of the major British orchestras. He also broadcast regularly for the BBC, both on radio and television. He sang under a wide range of conductors, including Harnoncourt, Boulez, de Waart, Davis, Haitink, Leitner, Rattle and Rozhdestvensky.

His operatic work included appearances with Welsh National Opera and at Covent Garden. He created three roles in The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies (Edinburgh 1980) and sang the title role in the British premiere of Messaien's Saint François d'Assise, repeating the part at the Edinburgh Festival. His extensive recital career included performances, and a recording, of Schubert's Winterreise, accompanied by David Owen Norris on an 1824 Broadwood piano.