Derek Welton

Australian baritone Derek Welton was born in 1982 in Melbourne and completed a bachelor’s degree in German and linguistics at the University of Melbourne before studying vocal performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He has won the first prize at the renowned Handel Singing Competition in London and at the Australia Youth Aria Competition as well as the second prize at the Herald Sun Aria Competition in Melbourne.

On the opera stage, Derek Welton has been heard in the following productions: as King Hildebrand in Jonathan Dove’s The Enchanted Pig (The Opera Group/ROH2), Vertigo in Gluck’s La Rencontre imprévue (Guildhall), Creonte in Haydn’s L’anima del filosofo (Pinchgut Opera), Mozart’s Figaro (Opera East), Count Almaviva (In Good Company), Don Giovanni (Bloomsbury Opera), Masetto, Guglielmo and Papageno (Melbourne Opera) as well as the Narrator (Guildhall), Bonzo in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Grange Park Opera), Mill in Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio (Guildhall), in the title role of Salieri’s Falstaff (Opera Otago, New Zealand), the King in Auli Sallinen’s The King Goes Forth to France (Guildhall), Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (British Youth Opera) and Monterone in Verdi’s Rigoletto (Bury Court Opera). He is currently singing the role of Donner in Wagner’s Rheingold (Opera North Company).

As a concert performer, Derek Welton has appeared, among other venues, at the Barbican Center, the Bridgewater Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall as well as at St. John’s, Smith Square and at St. Paul’s Cathedral.