Alastair Miles

Bass Alastair Miles, who was born in Harrow in northwest London, studied flute at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and began his career as an orchestral musician and teacher. During this time he also studied voice, making his operatic debut in 1985 as Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; the following year, when he won the Kathleen Ferrier Award, brought him international recognition. He soon became a regular artist not only on such leading British stages as the Royal Opera House and English National Opera but with many internationally renowned opera houses as well, performing a repertoire that ranges from Handel, Mozart, and bel canto to the great bass roles of Giuseppe Verdi. Miles has appeared as Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Giorgio in I Puritani, and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera, while at the Vienna Staatsoper he has performed Verdi’s Zaccaria (Nabucco) and Filippo II (Don Carlo). Credits also include Lord Sydney in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims at La Scala in Milan, the title role in Handel’s Saul at the Bavarian Staatsoper, and Mozart’s Figaro at De Nederlandse Opera under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In 2011 Miles expanded his repertoire by undertaking his first Wagner role as Pogner in Die Meistersinger, which he performed for the first time at the Glyndebourne Festival. Miles has made more than 70 recordings, including numerous rarities of the operatic repertoire of the 19th century. As a concert artist he has collaborated with such conductors as Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Simon Rattle, and Donald Runnicles. He recently partnered with Daniel Harding for Robert Schumann’s Scenes from Faust.

August 2011