Michael Smallwood

The Australian tenor Michael Smallwood commenced vocal training while completing a law degree at the University of Melbourne. After studies at the Victorian College of the Arts, the Australian National Academy of Music and New York´s Juilliard School, he entered the prestigious Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera in 2001, later becoming a member of the ensemble.

He has worked in many major houses in Europe and the US, including The Santa Fe Opera, Opera National de Paris, Glyndebourne, The Flemish Opera (Vlaamse Opera), Opera de Lyon, Opera National de Bordeaux, Opera de Dijon, Chicago Opera Theater, Badisches Staatstheater, Deutsche Staatsoper (Berlin), the Komische Oper Berlin, Barcelona’s Liceu, the Nederlanse Opera, and Staatsoper Kassel, as well as returning regularly to the Hamburg State Opera. Festival appearances have included: Ravinia, Aspen, the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, the RuhrTriennale, Lincoln Center Festival and the Haendel Festspiele (Halle and Karlsruhe).

In opera and concert he has worked with many important conductors including Yves Abel, Richard Farnes, Vladimir Jurowski, Friedemann Layer, Ingo Metzmacher, Julius Rudel, Ulf Schirmer, Steven Sloane, Stefan Soltesz, Constantinos Carydis, Ilan Volkov, Alfred Eschwe, Josep Pons, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Marek Janowski, Michael Boder, Sir Simon Rattle and Tomas Netopil. A sought-after performer of baroque music, his collaborators include William Christie, Alessandro de Marchi, Hermann Max, Michael Hofstetter, Jane Glover, Thomas Hengelbrock, Andreas Spering and Konrad Junghaenel.