On Saturday 22 March at 7.30pm Thomas is performing along with the Petersfield Musical Festival Chorus with Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra in a concert entitled “Dona Nobis Pacem” at Petersfield Festival Hall.
How did you get in touch with the Petersfield Musical Festival?
I think it happened in several stages. I had been in contact with Paul Spicer a couple of years ago because, as you know, he’s a wonderful and very eminent conductor and composer and I’ve always tried to write to conductors whom I admire and see if there’s any chance of working with them.
He was incredibly kind when I sent him some recordings, but nothing transpired really until Petersfield Musical Festival got in contact with my agent Anne Ferrier and this job came through. I think that the initial contact with Paul was the was probably the thing that set everything in motion.
What are you looking most forward to when performing at the Petersfield Musical Festival?
I’m doing the baritone solos in the Donna Nobis Pacem and I’m very excited to perform for the festival, particularly since I was supposed to be doing a performance in the in the same hall of Don Giovanni with a touring opera company in 2020, and we got 17 performances into the tour when the one at Petersfield was cancelled when the lockdown happened. So it’ll be a real pleasure to finally sing there. Vaughan Williams is very much a treasured composer for me, and I’ve never got to sing this work before. So it’s going to be a real treat and challenge.
That’s fantastic. And anything particular that you love about it?
The older I get, the more important I find this more resonant English poetry and all this wonderful culture that we’ve been handed down. This piece is very poignant; it’s a dirge, almost a requiem for war. It has that extraordinary music by Vaughan Williams and wonderful text, with extracts from Whitman’s poetry and the Bible as well. It’s a really fascinating piece.
Who and/or what have been the most important influences on your musical career so far?
I was very lucky that I was a chorister as a boy at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford under the inspirational Stephen Darlington. I started there at eight years old and got to go to Japan and America and sing all over the world. I also had a very great head of music at my school, Wellington College, called John Holloway, who was incredibly important in inspiring me to become a singer. I also have a very supportive Mum, who always believed in me.
It shows the positive influence of great teachers on kids at an early age, which I think is really important. I’ve taken that lesson and tried to do that in my teaching by bringing the same music and love for it to the students I teach.
What are you currently doing and how did you get to where you are now?
I went straight from school to the Royal Academy of Music; I would always sing art song and the oratorio repertoire. However, there was a general understanding that everything was opera-focused. I love opera, but I found that as my career has progressed, and particularly since coming back from Covid, I’ve begun to specialise in the concert repertoire.
I started in the Glyndebourne Festival opera Chorus for a couple of years, and then I did some roles with companies in the UK, but I feel that the concert world suits me more temperamentally, and I just really enjoy it. Everyone turns up enthusiastically on the day; there’s just a really wonderful atmosphere and you get to sing this extraordinary repertoire. New challenges are coming my way all the time. Yesterday I had a concert of some music by Grieg in Norwegian. These challenges sit alongside the loved Messiahs and Five Mystical Songs and Elijahs etc.
I’ve been freelancing for a long time now. I teach singing as well. As a singer, there’s an ever-increasing need to have a so-called “portfolio career” where you have two or more irons in the fire.
What have been the greatest challenges of your musical career so far?
One was being asked to sing the bass solos in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at a day’s notice. I’d never looked at the score before in my life, but I happened to have a copy. That was a that was a long day of music learning, but it was incredibly rewarding to sing it. On another occasion I was asked if I could perform Schubert’s Die Winterreise entirely off-copy, which is probably about 80 minutes of German Lieder; I had two weeks to learn it all off by heart, which was a huge undertaking, though again, it was really worthwhile. I’d say those two have been quite challenging.
Are there any composers either of the past or the present who have given you great inspiration?
I’ve always deeply loved Schubert, particularly his Lieder. I’ve always found it a very great comfort to sing them as well as to listen to them. In a very similar way, the Russian songs of Tchaikovsky. I find these two quite similar in their scope and their profundity; they’ve both got this extraordinary ability to express the highs and the lows of human existence. That exemplifies to me the transcendent power of art. However, as each year goes by, the more I am convinced that Bach was the greatest musical genius ever to walk this earth!
Do you have any memorable concerts that you would like to recount?
During an opera gala once, I was asked to sing a Gilbert and Sullivan quartet once. I’d slightly left the preparation of it to the last minute. I am normally quite good at memorising words and music, but on this occasion, when it came to my turn to sing, I forgot everything. I also then discovered I wasn’t particularly good at ad-libbing and I just made up a load of complete rubbish, which didn’t even make sense. The other singers were clearly trying to remain composed, but they all broke into fits of laughter as I was singing and it was very difficult to remain composed! It was very funny.
Would you give any particular advice to anybody embarking on a career such as you are on?
I’d refer them to a Derek Jacobi quote about acting, because I think acting and singing are very similar: “If you want to be an actor (or in this case a musician), go and do something else because it’s so hard.” But if you need to do it, then then that’s a different kettle of fish entirely. You will need to be prepared for how difficult it is. We all go into music college thinking that you will make it, in spite of the overwhelming odds. You need self-belief, but I think you’ve got to go there with that realism as well as that devotion.
You should also thoroughly keep your feet on the ground. One of my favourite singers of all time was the American baritone at the Metropolitan Opera, Robert Merrill. He said at the end of his career that you must be a person first – by that he obviously meant that you must cultivate your relationships, family and friends, and those things come first. And as important as music is, it must come second to those.
How do you define success as a musician?
I’d like to give two answers to this because there’s the obvious answer: there’s the Maria Callas, the Bryn Terfel, the Jonas Kaufmann, all of whose names you see up in lights, proverbially performing in the greatest houses and singing magnificently across the world. Thank God we have all those people. But if you can have a happy life – I definitely think more this way since becoming a father – and if your life can be one full of meaning (and I think music can bring a lot of meaning), then that is my definition of success.
What would you like to be doing in five years’ time?
I would very much like to be doing the same thing. I’d like to be singing with wonderful choirs, singing this wonderful music. Being able to teach at the great schools I teach at (Winchester College is one of those and I find that very rewarding). I feel very lucky to have the career I have and I hope it continues in the same manner as hitherto.
About Thomas
Thomas Humphreys began singing at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and studied at the Royal Academy of Music.
In opera, his roles include Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Il Conte Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte), Escamillo (Carmen), Marcello (La boheme), Tomsky (Pique Dame), Jake Wallace (La fanciulla del West) among others for many of the major opera companies across the UK. He was recently critically acclaimed for his role as Il Conte Almaviva in Dorset Festival Opera’s production of Le nozze di Figaro, with Opera Magazine stating ‘Thomas Hiumphreys’ finely-sung alpha-male Count mixed Marlon Brando-like virility with baffled authority’.
Thomas recently made his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, performing concerts of Schubert Lieder with the worldwide renowned pianist Maria Joao Pires, for which he was universally acclaimed. Other recital work has taken him across the UK and to Italy, Russia and Bulgaria.
Thomas is equally in high demand on the concert platform, regularly performing with the premiere choirs and orchestras in the UK, notably the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, English Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the City of London Choir. He recently made his Royal Festival Hall debut singing Requiem (Verdi) with the London Mozart Players. His repertoire includes Messiah (Handel), Elijah (Mendelssohn), St. John Passion (Bach), Christmas Oratorio (Bach), Ein deutches Requiem (Brahms), Requiem (Mozart), Requiem (Faure), The Creation (Haydn), Nelson Mass (Haydn), and Five Mystical Songs (Vaughan Williams).
Future plans include Five Mystical Songs (Vaughan Williams) in Exeter and Chester Cathedrals, Requiem (Verdi) at the Anvil, Basingstoke and A Sea Symphony (Vaughan Williams) in Christchurch Priory.
https://thomas-humphreys.com
Instagram @thomas.humphreys.baritone
