Biography
British tenor Oliver Johnston is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and was a participant in the 2016 Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project.
Highlights in his 2023/24 season include Walther Blond Eckbert and Damon Acis and Galatea for the Potsdam Winter Opera/Potsdam Kammerakademie. On the concert platform, Oliver sings Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Matthew Hall, Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Philharmonia Orchestra/David Hill, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Christopher Warren-Green, and Verdi’s Requiem with Oxford Bach Choir/Benjamin Nicholas. Future seasons include returns to Welsh National Opera and Garsington Opera.
Reviews
“Don José was sung by tenor Oliver Johnson. His Flower Song was delicately contoured, with especially nice shading coming from a feather-soft head voice. His final cry of rage and despair at the climax of the opera, as he is dragged away, was hair-raising.”
“Johnston’s voice has a firm, full sound, which has a robust element to it that suited the character. His delivery of his great Act Two moment was creditably done, and strongly in character. We never got any sense of the singer suddenly pinging into ‘my big aria’, and Johnston had a nice use of head voice. This seems to be his biggest role to date… Admirably Johnston’s voice remained strong and secure until the end.”
“Oliver Johnston sang with sincerity, humility and disarming simplicity, becoming on the spot the favorite of all those present at the Athenaeum. From the very beginning to the disturbing Take me away of the descent reconciled to Purgatory, the British tenor impressed with the presence, perfect voice and diction; he would have deserved an ovation on the open stage, like in opera.”