Austin Gunn
Professor of Singing
Music
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Faculty of Music
King Charles Court
Old Royal Naval College
Greenwich
London
SE10 9JF
Biography
Austin Gunn made his professional operatic debut as Vorsinger Zaide with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras in the Edinburgh International Festival. Other notable EIF performances include 1st Tenor Soloist Curlew River and Zweite Lehrbube Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
His Scottish Opera debut was covering Don Ottavio Don Giovanni directed by Sir Thomas Allen and conducted by Speranza Scapucci and he performed the role in the unwrap performances throughout Scotland.
His English National Opera debut was Guest John Cage Dinner Party for ENO MusiCircus, and he has returned to ENO many times since. ENO performances include Pliable/Superstition/Celestial Voice cover A Pilgrim’s Progress, Dantine cover The Perfect American, in preproduction workshops and showcases between ENO, The Barbican and the Young Vic as Gizmo 3 The Way Back Home and Security Guard Between Worlds, an ENO Late Shift Recital at the National Portrait Gallery, and he is core tenor for ENO Baylis Know the Show events as Tamino Magic Flute and Alfredo La Traviata, a member of ENO Opera Squad 2015, 2016 & 2017 singing Nanki-Poo The Mikado, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni and Don Basilio Le Nozze di Figaro in schools performances and has appeared as guest soloist with the ENO Community Choir.
Austin made his Portuguese debut in 2017 as Martin in the premiere staging of Hummus by Zad Moultaka and Manager in The Waiter’s Revenge by Stephen Oliver at the Musica Na Fabrica Festival, Lisbon directed by Max Hoehn and his Swiss debut in 2018 as the Spectre in Dvorak’s The Spectre’s Bride in Zürich conducted by Philipp Mestrinel.
Other operatic roles for comapnies including Longborough Festival Opera, Berwick Festival Opera, Tete a Tete Festival, Opera Anywhere, InterOpera, include Don Jose Carmen, Nemorino L’elisir d’amore, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Beppe Rita, Aubrey Der Vampyr, Dormont La Scala di Seta,Bobby The Fisherman’s Brides, Manager The Waiter’s Revenge, Frederick Pirates of Penzance, Nanki-Poo The Mikado, Ralph Rackstraw HMS Pinafore, Martin Hummus, Bardolfo Falstaff, Middle Son The Vanishing Bridegroom and Goffredo Rinaldo.
Austin appears regularly throughout the UK and in France, Sweden and Italy in concert in a vast array of repertoire. As a recitalist he has performed ‘Tennyson’s Lyricism and the Composer’s Response’ at the Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle, and ‘Languorous Ecstasy’, a selection of works by Libertine poets, at Hull University and a selection of Victorian and Edwardian medicinal song for the VIP relaunch of The Wellcome Collection in London. He is currently preparing a recital of American art song and a recital of 21st Century music.
Recording and film credits to date include Montague John Cage Dinner Party, Maxwell Davies Solstice of Light, 1st Tenor Soloist Curlew River, Zweite Lehrbube Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg all for BBC Radio 3, a recital of song for American television network PBS, and as the singing voice of a German soldier in the television series ‘Band of Brothers’ directed by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.