Kieran Rayner (SGCNZ NSSP 2004, SGCNZ YSC 2005)

Operatic baritone Kieran Rayner completed a Masters of Performance and Artist Diploma in Opera at the Royal College of Music in 2018, after graduating in 2011 from the NZ School of Music/Victoria University Wellington with degrees in Performance Music and English Literature. He recently made his Royal Opera House debut as Junius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia.

Since arriving in Britain in late 2014, Kieran has been engaged by The Royal Opera House, Garsington Opera, English Touring Opera, Scottish Opera, IF Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Mid Wales Opera, British Youth Opera, Devon Opera, Festival Opera NZ, and NAFA Singapore, among others. He has been a Young Artist with the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation, Independent Opera, Garsington Opera, Verbier Festival, Samling Arts, Britten Pears Arts, and NZ Opera. He has performed solo at the Royal Albert Hall and Buckingham Palace, as well as across Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

His operatic engagements include core roles (such as Figaro Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro, Papageno Die Zauberflöte), verismo opera (Silvio I Pagliacci, Marcello La Bohème), baroque opera (Title role Caio Fabbricio, Valens Theodora), operetta (Eisenstein Die Fledermaus, Prince of Mantua Fantasio), and contemporary works like new commissions Dare to Dream at the Royal Albert Hall for Garsington Opera, and Jasmine Morris’s Animal Farm at the Aldeburgh Festival (world premieres). He has a flair for the comedic (Le Mari Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Vicar Gedge Albert Herring), and dramatic (The Forester The Cunning Little Vixen, Escamillo Carmen).

He won the international SING FINZI competition 2022, was an International Handel Competition finalist, a Wigmore Hall International Song Competition semifinalist 2019, won the Garsington Opera Simon Sandbach Award 2019, the Royal Over-Seas League Crawshaw Outstanding Overseas Musician Prize 2018, and the Emmy Destinn Czech Song Prize 2017.

An accomplished writer-performer, Kieran created and performed in his own interactive play/recital WOHIN – WHERE TO?, which enjoyed a triumphant premiere with a full house at the Aldeburgh Festival 2022. He has been granted a residency with Samling Arts to develop a sequel. He is also a professional voice actor with a home studio, and has training in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. For videos and upcoming engagements, see www.kieranrayner.com.