After graduating from St John’s College, Cambridge, Iestyn Davies studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
In 2017 Iestyn received an Olivier Award nomination for singing the role of Farinelli in Farinelli and the King opposite Mark Rylance, a Globe Theatre production that had successful runs on the West End and Broadway.
On the opera stage he has appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera, La Scala, Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, the Chicago Lyric Opera and in Munich, Vienna and Zurich. Recent highlights include returns to the Bayerische Staatsoper for Ottone/Agrippina, Terry/Marnie at the Metropolitan Opera and Polinesso/Ariodante at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. This season he reprises the role of Ottone/Agrippina at the Royal Opera House and at the Metropolitan Opera.
Celebrated on the concert platform, he has performed at La Scala, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Tonhalle in Zurich, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, at the Barbican in London and Lincoln Centre New York. Recent highlights include concerts with William Christie / Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Labadie / Les Violons du Roy and the Handel & Haydn Society, Jonathan Cohen / Arcangelo at the BBC Proms and a tour with the Britten Sinfonia. This season he joins Laurence Cummings / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Bucharest for Orfeo ed Euridice, Harry Bicket / New York Philharmonic for Messiah and he joins Emmanuel Haim / NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra for a series of concerts of the St. John Passion at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
A committed recitalist, with repertoire ranges from Dowland to Clapton, he is a regular guest at Carnegie Hall, New York and enjoys a successful relationship with both the Wigmore Hall and Saffron Hall where he has curated residencies. At the start of the season, Iestyn celebrated his 40th birthday with a special concert at the Wigmore Hall, where he was presented their prestigious Gold Medal.
Iestyn has twice been awarded the Gramophone Recital Award, and in 2017 won the Gramophone Baroque Vocal Award for his Bach Cantatas disc with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen. In 2017 Iestyn was awarded an MBE for his services to music.