The bass-baritone Michael Mofidian was born in Glasgow and graduated from the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded the Pavarotti Prize in 2017. In 2018 he won the Singers’ Prize in the Royal Over-Seas League Competition.
From 2018 to 2020 he was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where among other roles he sang Narumov (The Queen of Spades), Alcalde (La forza del destino), Angelotti (Tosca), Zuniga (Carmen), Minotauros in Henze’s Phaedra (in the Linbury Theatre), Johann (Werther), Dr Grenvil (La traviata), Judge and Chelsias in Handel’s Susanna (Linbury Theatre), a Flemish Deputy (Don Carlo) and various roles in Britten’s Death in Venice. At the Royal Opera House he worked with conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Edward Gardner, Alexander Joel, Julia Jones and Keri-Lynn Wilson. In 2018 he was a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne Festival, where he sang roles including the Doctor in Pelléas et Mélisande and the Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly.
His recent engagements include Masetto (Don Giovanni) at Covent Garden, Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte) at Scottish Opera, and performances at the 2021 First Night of the Proms and in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella at the opening concert of the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival. In the 2021/22 season Michael Mofidian was engaged by the Grand Théâtre de Genève, where he appeared in several productions. He also made his debut at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome as the Mandarin in a concert performance and CD recording of Turandot under Pappano.
Michael Mofidian’s future engagements include Theseus (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) in Rouen and a return to Covent Garden as Colline (La bohème); he will also return to Glyndebourne Festival in 2023.
On the concert platform he has sung in Mozart, Verdi and Fauré’s Requiems, Bach’s Passions, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Stravinsky’s Les Noces, as well as in Dvořák’s Stabat Mater and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with the Britten Sinfonia under Mark Elder.
Michael Mofidian has given recitals with the pianists Keval Shah, Jâms Coleman, Sholto Kynoch and Malcolm Martineau at venues including the Wigmore Hall and St John’s Smith Square in London and the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, and at the Oxford Lieder and Leeds Lieder festivals.
Michael Mofidian is also a composer who has written orchestral works, chamber music, songs and pieces for vocal ensemble.
