Neil Jenkins - tenor and conductor

Neil Jenkins, who has been a professional singer for forty years, was a Chorister at Westminster Abbey, and a Choral Scholar at King’s College Cambridge. He subsequently studied in the Opera School at the RCM and made his debut in October 1967. For the next ten years he sang and recorded with the Deller Consort, under the direction of Alfred Deller, whilst establishing himself as an opera singer. He was a principal tenor with Kent Opera for the twenty years of its existence. In the 1970s he was appointed as an RCM singing professor by Sir David Willcocks, for whom he became a regular soloist with the Bach Choir, especially in the Bach Passions.

He has carved out a unique career, being equally at home as an operatic, oratorio and recital singer, and combining this with an increasingly important role as a musicologist. In 2003 he was appointed to a Cambridge Fellowship to enable him to write a book about Handel’s favourite English tenor, John Beard. He has delivered conference papers on Handel and 18th century London theatrical life. Neil has translated and edited all of Bach’s major choral works for the New Novello Choral Edition, and Haydn’s choral works for King’s Music, and produced song albums for OUP and Kevin Mayhew Ltd.

He has recorded under such eminent batons as those of Bernstein, Britten, Marriner, Mackerras, Chailly, Nagano, Andrew Davis, Haitink, Norrington, Parrott, Gardiner and Hickox. He is also known for his performances of contemporary music, where he has been directed by Rattle, Henze, Oramo, Atherton, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Jac van Steen, Boulez and Previn.

Neil has sung with all of Britain’s leading opera companies, particularly at Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera and WNO. Performances in the present century have taken him to New York, Chicago, Berlin, Paris, Lyon, Amsterdam, Geneva, Santiago, Dublin, Belfast and Tel Aviv. His performances in Kent Opera’s King Priam and Glyndebourne Festival’s Lulu and Higglety Pigglety Pop are available on video. For New Sussex Opera he has sung the title roles in Britten’s Peter Grimes, Rossini’s Count Ory and Mozart’s Idomeneo. He joined WNO once again in 2008 for a production of Verdi’s Falstaff, starring Bryn Terfel.

In 2004 Neil was honoured by the Worshipful Company of Musicians with the presentation of the ‘Sir Charles Santley Memorial Award’ for his achievements in his singing career, and his labours in producing new scholarly Bach editions for Novello.

Neil is President of the Haywards Heath Music Club, the Shoreham Oratorio Choir and the Grange Choral Society of Bournemouth; Vice-President of the Brighton Competitive Music Festival and the Huntingdon Philharmonic Society; and is now a Patron of the Goldsmith’s Choral Union.

Neil Jenkins' significant events in a 40-year career

  • 1967 September Joined the Deller Consort, and made 1st recordings for Harmonia Mundi label
  • 1967 October 27th London Debut Recital, Purcell Room, with Roger Vignoles
  • 1967 December 1st performances of the title role in Britten’s St Nicolas
  • 1968 May 17th First solo BBC Broadcast – Haydn Great Organ Mass
  • 1968 August 17th Operatic Debut in Menotti’s The Consul, produced by Giancarlo Menotti
  • 1968-9 Guest soloist with Gary Bertini’s Israel Chamber Orchestra for 2 seasons singing Britten’s Serenade & Finzi’s Dies Natalis amongst other solo tenor works
  • 1970 Debuts in RFH (March) & RAH (December); 1st solo recording (Finzi song-cycle)
  • 1971 Performs Dies Natalis with Newbury Strings, conducted by Christopher Finzi
  • 1972 Winner of the NFMS Award; 1st Prom; 1st appearance with Kent Opera. 1st TV appearance in Verdi’s Falstaff; 1st work with Benjamin Britten
  • 1974 WNO debut; Professor of Singing at R.C.M; 1st Three Choirs Festival
  • 1975 1st concert with David Willcocks and the Bach Choir; 1st Aldeburgh Festival
  • 1976 ‘Johnny Inkslinger’ in Britten’s Paul Bunyan at Aldeburgh and on tour
  • 1979 1st appearance with Netherlands Opera in The Consul, produced by Menotti
  • 1981 Peter Grimes at Brighton Festival; Scottish Opera debut in Pearl Fishers
  • 1981 – 5 Records entire canon of G & S operettas for BBC Radio 2, conductor Mackerras
  • 1982 1st appearance at Glyndebourne in Higglety Pigglety Pop, recorded on Video
  • 1983 Opera North debut in Eugene Onegin & The Cunning Little Vixen
  • 1986 1st appearance with Geneva Opera in Strauss Elektra, revived & recorded *1990
  • 1987 Soloist in Tippett’s A Child of our Time at televised First Night of the Proms
    1st appearances of the Jenkins Family Singers, later the Neil Jenkins Chorale
  • 1989 Soloist in Bernstein’s Candide recorded for DG, conducted by the composer
  • 1991 1st appearance with Ditchling Choral Society, as Evangelist in St John Passion
  • 1993 First musical editions, recordings and publications for Kevin Mayhew Ltd.
  • 1995 First musical editions and translations for Novello Edition and OUP
  • 1995 - 2001 Begins his conducting career as Musical Director of Brighton Chamber Choir
  • 2002 Appointed Cummins-Harvey Fellow Commoner at Girton College, Cambridge
  • 2002 - present Musical Director of Ditchling Choral Society, later Sussex Chorus
  • 2004 Sir Charles Santley Memorial Award presented by Worshipful Co. of Musicians
  • 2007 August Begins Ardingly International Music School (AIMS) with his wife Penny .....

The Times Saturday 28th October *1967

“Welcome to a new English Tenor”

“Well-schooled tenors are never thick on the ground, so when a new one, such as Neil Jenkins, appears on the musical scene word spreads fast – and word was confirmed at his Purcell Room recital. Here is a clear, soundly produced, not over-large voice, rather in the Wilfred Brown mould. Such was his assurance that there was hardly a bad note or an ill-formed phrase all evening, doubtless the fruit of hard training...”

See www.neiljenkins.com for more information