British baritone Jolyon Loy is fast emerging as one of the UK's most versatile young singer-actors. Praised for his “charismatic voice and presence” (The Guardian) and “dynamic vocalism” (The Stage), recent seasons have seen him debut at Royal Ballet & Opera, English National Opera, Grange Park Opera, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Teatro Filarmonica di Verona, Verbier Festival, Wexford Festival Opera, Garsington Opera, Opera Holland Park, Vache Baroque Festival, Opera Collective Ireland & Buxton International Festival in roles including Onegin Eugene Onegin; Escamillo & Moralès Carmen; Marullo Rigoletto; Paolo Simon Boccanegra; Schaunard La bohème; Figaro Le nozze di Figaro; Aeneas Dido & Aeneas; Aye Akhnaten; Don Alfonso Così fan tutte; Minskman Flight; Zoroastro Orlando; Leone Tamerlano; Wächter Die Frau ohne Schatten; Sonora La fanciulla del West & Earl of Morton Mary, Queen of Scots.

Directed by Oliver Mears and conducted by Corinna Niemeyer, his breakthrough performance came in 2022 as Tarquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia - staged at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, Snape Maltings Concert Hall and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. His portrayal earned him universal praise, described as “outstanding” (Plays To See); “brilliantly played by Jolyon Loy, his tensile, dynamic vocalism underlining his menace” (The Stage); “Loy’s Tarquinius drew the eye - a towering figure with Hollywood looks […] That, combined with the mellow seductiveness of his baritone" (Bachtrack); “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).

Appearing regularly in concert, Jolyon has worked with conductors Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, David Temple & Philippe Herreweghe, his performances including Messiah with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Symphony Hall); Bach St Matthew Passion (Dartington Festival), Valens Theodora (Snape Maltings) & Rossi Songs of Solomon (St John's, Smith Square). He has performed at Brighton Early Music Festival, Wexford Festival, Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Tewkesbury Abbey, King’s Lynn Minster, Arundel & Dunblane Cathedrals in works spanning Handel Dixit Dominus, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music, Bach B Minor Mass & Cantatas, Duruflé Requiem, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes, Orff Carmina Burana, Dupré De Profundis, Puccini Messa di Gloria & Fauré Requiem.

Winner of an Extraordinary Prize at the 60th Tenor Viñas, 2nd Prize & the Bayreuth Festival Stipendium at the Wagner Society Singing Competition, Jolyon is an alumnus of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique and was a Glyndebourne New Generation Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in London, supported by the Countess of Munster Trust and the Richard Van Allan Award. Nominated for a Gramophone Award, his recorded work includes Eccles’ Semele with the Academy of Ancient Music & Cambridge Handel Opera, released on AAM Records, and Songs from Faust with Mark Austin, released on Champs Hill Records. He recently appeared in recital with Iain Burnside at Ludlow English Song Weekend and is a founding member of The Rhapsode Ensemble.

Engagements in 25/26 include Don Giovanni with the Irish Baroque Orchestra & Peter Whelan for Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, a return to English National Opera as Moralès in Calixto Beito’s Carmen (covering Escamillo), Beethoven 9 at London’s Barbican Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Joseph in Berlioz L’enfance du Christ with Cambridge Philharmonic, Puccini Messa di Gloria & Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs with Sinfonia Viva at Derby Cathedral, Marcello La bohème for Waterperry Opera, Stanford Songs of the Sea & Duruflé Requiem at Salisbury Cathedral. Jolyon trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Academy of Music and was formerly a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. He began singing as a boy chorister and lay clerk at Worcester Cathedral.