Liam Bonthrone
BBC Music Magazine and Classic FM ‘Rising Star’, Scottish tenor Liam Bonthrone made major house and role debuts in the 2025/6 season, including Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola) for Göteborgs Operan, Jonathan (Saul) for Oper Köln, Lord Darnley /1st Male Consort in the World Premiere of Brett Dean’s Of One Blood at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Pong (Turandot) for the Royal Ballet & Opera, Covent Garden, and Brighella (Ariadne auf Naxos) in a new Laurent Pelly production for Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
Liam’s recent appearances include Royal Danish Opera: Il Conte d’Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Potsdamer Winteroper: Rinaldo (Armida), Glyndebourne: Abner/High Priest/Amalekite/Doeg (Saul), and Grail Knight (Parsifal), and Bayerische Staatsoper, where he was a member of the Opera Studio: performing roles in the Nationaltheater including Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Brighella(Ariadne auf Naxos), Gaston/Victorin (Die tote Stadt), Le Remendado (Carmen), Gran Sacerdote (Idomeneo), Ein Junger Seemann (Tristan und Isolde) and Rustighello (Lucrezia Borgia). In the Cuvilliés Theater: Der Erzähler (Der Mond – Orff), and the Münchner Kammerspiele in The Visitor (In the Penal Colony – Philip Glass). In 2024, he made his debut at Tiroler Winterfestspiele Erl, as Leshyi in Rimski-Korsakov’s Snegurotchka.
As a concert soloist, recent performances include Gran Sacerdote in Mozart’s Idomeneo with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and J.S. Bach St Matthew Passion with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. He appeared at the 2025 Ludlow English Song Weekend with Iain Burnside, and the 80th Cheltenham Music Festival as tenor soloist in Berlioz’ Te Deum.With pianist Benjamin Mead, he has performed recitals in the UK, and at the Rhonefestival für Liedkunst in Brig, Switzerland. They recently performed their recital ‘Stories as brittle as glass, at the 2025 Britten Weekend at Snape Maltings – a programme which Liam also gave with Michael Pandya at the Glenarm Festival of Voice in Northern Ireland, broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Liam also collaborated Side-by-side with the Prince Consort at the Wigmore Hall, and in Graham Johnson’s Song Guild at Milton Court.
Liam’s recordings include his debut solo album Soirée parisienne with pianist Benjamin Mead as part of the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Series on the LINN label, and also on the Delphian label; as tenor soloist in the recent release of Stainer: The Crucifixion, with the Choir and Organ of St. Mary’s Cathedral Edinburgh, and ensemble for Bernstein’s Candide, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop, in the Barbican Centre – released on LSO Live.
He is a recent alumnus of The Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, directed by Edith Wiens, a Samling Artist, and was as an Alvarez Young Artist with Garsington Opera.Liam was educated in the UK: a Bicentenary Scholar at Royal Academy Opera. He also holds a Masters of Performance with Distinction and a Concert Recital Diploma from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and a First Class Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He won First Place in the 2022 Clonter Opera Prize.
Liam has participated in Masterclasses led by artists including Joyce DiDonato, Brigitte Fassbaender, Malcolm Martineau, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Ian Bostridge, Ann Murray, Edith Wiens, Helmut Deutsch and Roger Vignoles.