Biography

Originally from Northumberland, British tenor Alex Banfield is familiar with the opera, concert and oratorio platforms, having performed with Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera North, where in 2020 he performed Sam Kaplan in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene. In 20-21 he was a member of OperAvenir at Theater Basel, and sang the roles of Tamino & Armed Man Die Zauberflöte, Rinuccio Gianni Schicchi and Ernesto Don Pasquale.

Opera

Alex's repertoire for Opera North also includes Jonathan Dale in the UK premiere of Silent Night, a Pulitzer Prize-winning opera by American composer Kevin Puts, as well as Hrazda Osud (Janacek), Nikolio Greek Passion (Martinů) and Raoul de St Brioche The Merry Widow (Lehar). He performed Lysander A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Royal Northern College of Music and Peter Quint The Turn of The Screw with the Manchester Opera Ensemble. Alex sang Le théière & La rainette L’enfant et les sortilèges and the title role in Albert Herring for the Samling Academy where "one could readily see a massive future for him in the opera world" (The Yorkshire Post). As a soloist with the Orchestra of Opera North, Alex performed Rodolfo in excerpts from La bohème and, as part of Opera North’s Whistle Stop Opera, he performed Nemorino The Elixir of Love.

Oratorio

Alex’s oratorio highlights include the Requiem in C Major (Michael Haydn) in Bilbao, Spain, Fantasia in C Minor (Beethoven) for the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, Messiah (Handel) for the Royal Northern Sinfonia at the Sage Gateshead, Coronation Mass (Mozart) at Snape Maltings, Israel in Egypt (Handel) at Chester Cathedral with The Liverpool Sinfonia, and Crucifixion (Stainer) for Newcastle Cathedral. His additional oratorio repertoire also includes Ham in Noye’s Fludde (Britten), L’enfance du Christ (Berlioz), Dixit Dominus (Handel), Creation & Nelson Mass (Haydn), Hymn of Praise (Mendelssohn), Requiem, Great Mass in C Minor & Missa Brevis (Mozart), Mass in G (Schubert), and Belshazzar’s Feast (Walton).

As a sought-after Bach performer, Alex performed regularly with the Liverpool Bach Collective as a specialist in the Cantata repertoire. He has sung Bach's Mass in B Minor and St. Matthew Passion for Durham Cathedral, St. John Passion for Manchester Cathedral, and Cantata 131 Aus Der Tiefen for Newcastle Cathedral. During the Royal Northern College of Music Bach Festival, Alex was a soloist in G. C. Bach’s Siehe, wie fein und lieblich ist. He also sang Magnificat for the Kidderminster Choral Society, and Christmas Oratorio for Northumberland Choral Society.

Concert

Live on BBC Radio 4, Alex performed multiple times as a soloist for the Daily Service and for a live broadcast of Bob Chilcott’s Jazz Mass at St Martin-in-the-Fields. He also performed for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra live on BBC Radio 1 and live on BBC Radio 2. He sang the Serenade to Music with Malcolm Martineau and the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Amaretti Consort. He has performed as a recitalist in Cathedrals across the UK such as Durham, Manchester and Newcastle and last year Alex performed for the Friends of Opera North. He also performed in concert in Northumberland, raising over £800 for the charity Henry Dancer Days. 

Alex is generously supported by the Opera Awards Foundation.