Biography

Jolyon Loy is an emerging British-Irish baritone. Upcoming engagements in 2024/25 include cover Eugene Onegin Eugene Onegin & his mainstage debut as Schaunard La bohème at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Speranza Scappucci; Beethoven’s Ninth with the RPO at the Barbican; a return to English National Opera as Earl of Morton in Thea Musgrave’s Mary Queen of Scots; a recital with Iain Burnside at Ludlow English Song Festival; his debut for Grange Park Opera as Paolo Albiani Simon Boccanegra, opposite Sir Simon Keenlyside; and his debut at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl as Marullo Rigoletto, alongside Luca Salsi & Ludovic Tézier, conducted by Asher Fisch.

Recent appearances include Aye in Phelim McDermott’s Olivier award-winning production of Akhnaten at English National Opera, conducted by Karen Kamensek, and Tarquinius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at The Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre, directed by Oliver Mears, conducted by Corinna Niemeyer and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. His portrayal received widespread critical acclaim, described as ‘brilliantly played by Jolyon Loy, his tensile, dynamic vocalism underlining his menace’ (The Stage), ‘Loy's bright, virile voice is impressive, ringing out with formidable top notes' (Musical America) and ‘seems all the more dangerously psychopathic for being so charismatic of both voice and presence.’ (The Guardian).

Elsewhere he has appeared as Figaro Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park), Don Alfonso Così fan tutte (Garsington Opera), Zoroastro Orlando (Buxton International Festival), Aeneas Dido & Aeneas (Vache Baroque Festival), Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro (Berlin Opera Festival), 1st Priest/2nd Armed Man Die Zauberflöte under Stanislav Kochanovsky and Wächter Die Frau ohne Schatten under Valery Gergiev (Verbier Festival), Schaunard La bohème (Clonter Opera), Leone Tamerlano (Cambridge Handel Opera), Sonora La fanciulla del West (Wexford Festival Opera), Peter Hansel & Gretel (British Youth Opera) & Minskman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight (Opera Collective Ireland).

In concert Jolyon has worked with conductors such as Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn & Philippe Herreweghe, his engagements including Handel Messiah with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Symphony Hall), Bach St Matthew Passion (Dartington International Festival), Handel Theodora (Snape Maltings Concert Hall), Handel Dixit Dominus (National Opera House, Wexford), Bach B Minor Mass & Duruflé Requiem (Glasgow City Halls), Orff Carmina Burana (Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall), Dupré De Profundis (Tewkesbury Abbey), Puccini Messa di Gloria & Fauré Requiem (Arundel Cathedral), Williams Serenade to Music (St John’s, Smith Square), G7 Summit Opera Gala with the Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona (Teatro Filarmonico di Verona) & Rossi Songs of Solomon: A Baroque Hanukkah with Vache Baroque, broadcast as part of BBC3’s Lunchtime Concert series.

From 2020-22, Jolyon was an Associate & Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in London appearing in concert at ENO, Opera North, Welsh National Opera & London’s Cadogan Hall. He is an alumnus of the Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique, the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, the Internationale OpernWerkstatt - Festival der jungen Stimmen, British Youth Opera, the Garsington Opera Alvarez Programme, the Opera Holland Park Young Artist Programme, Opera Prelude & the Glyndebourne Chorus. He trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Academy of Music, as a Choral Scholar at Magdalen College, University of Oxford and as a chorister at Worcester Cathedral.

Awards include an Extraordinary Prize at the 60th Tenor Viñas, 2nd Prize & the Bayreuth Stipendium at the Wagner Society Singing Competition at Wigmore Hall, a Glyndebourne New Generation Young Artist Development Award, a Countess of Munster Award and the Richard Van Allan Award from Help Musicians UK. Nominated for a Gramophone Award, Jolyon featured as Apollo on Academy of Ancient Music’s landmark recording of Eccles’ Semele, released on AAM Records. Due for release in October 2024, he appears as the baritone soloist on ‘Songs from Faust’, a new CD tracing Goethe’s Faust legend in song, recorded with Mark Austin for Champs Hill Records.