Scottish tenor, and both BBC Music Magazine and Classic FM ‘Rising Star’ Liam Bonthrone was a member of the Opera Studio of the Bayerische Staatsoper, in 2022-2024. Roles performed there include Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Brighella (Ariadne auf Naxos), Remendado  (Carmen), Der Erzähler (Der Mond - Orff),  Gran Sacerdote (Idomeneo), Ein  Junger Seemann (Tristan und Isolde), Rustighello  (Lucrezia Borgia), Collatino (Lucrezia - Respighi), Un  Lampionaio (Manon Lescaut), and Player Two  (Hamlet - Brett Dean). In 2024, he made his debut at Tiroler Winterfestspiele Erl, as Leshyi in Rimski-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden.

The 2024/2025 season sees Liam performing major house and role debuts, including Royal Danish Opera: Il Conte d’Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Potsdamer Winteroper: Rinaldo (Armida - Haydn), Bayerische Staatsoper: Gaston/Victorin (Die tote Stadt), and Der Erzähler (Der Mond) and Glyndebourne Festival Opera: Abner/High Priest/Amalekite/Doeg (Saul), and First Grail Knight in a new production of Parsifal. He will also appear at the Ludlow English Song Weekend with Iain Burnside, and the Cheltenham Music Festival.

Liam’s recent recordings include his debut solo album Soirée parisienne with pianist Benjamin Mead as part of the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Series for the LINN label, and also on the Delphian label; as tenor soloist in the recent release of Stainer: The Crucifixion, with the Choir and Organ of St. Mary’s Cathedral Edinburgh.

Liam was a Bicentenary Scholar at Royal Academy Opera, where he studied with Nuccia Focile, Marcus van den Akker and Jonathan Papp. Here he performed the roles of Ferrando (Cosi fan tutte), Gonzalve (L’heure Espagnole), Tanzmeister/Haushofmeister (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Flute (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). He also holds a Masters of Performance with Distinction and a Concert Recital Diploma from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and a First Class Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

He won First Place in the 2022 Clonter Opera Prize, was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Wigmore Hall/Bollinger Song Competition, and a finalist in the 2020 Kathleen Ferrier Awards. He is a recent alumnus of The Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, directed by Edith Wiens. Liam is also Samling Artist, and has performed as an Alvarez Young Artist with Garsington Opera. He performed Tenor Corypheè, and covered the title role in Garsington’s 2021 production of Le Comte Ory. In 2019, Liam made his operatic debut as Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola) with British Youth Opera, receiving two major awards for his performance.

As a concert soloist, recent performances include Gran Sacerdote in Mozart’s Idomeneo with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and J.S. Bach St Matthew Passion with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Other works include Handel Messiah and Samson, Mendelssohn Elijah, Mozart Requiem and Mass in C minor, Beethoven Choral Symphony, J.S. Bach Christmas Oratorio, Haydn The Creation, Bruckner Mass in F minor, Finzi For St. Cecilia , MacMillan All the hills and vales along, and the Scottish Premiere of Joubert St Mark Passion. He also appeared in various roles in the ensemble for Bernstein’s Candide, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop, in the Barbican Centre - also released on LSO Live.

On the recital platform, Liam has performed alongside the Prince Consort at the Wigmore Hall, and in Graham Johnson’s Song Guild at Milton Court. As a duo with pianist Benjamin Mead, he has performed recitals in the UK, and most recently at the Rhonefestival für Liedkunst in Brig, Switzerland. In 2024, he performed a BBC Radio 3 Recital ‘Stories as brittle as glass’ at the Glenarm Festival of Voice in Northern Ireland with Michael Pandya. He was a featured soloist with BBC ‘Total Immersion’, and has performed in collaboration with pianist Alasdair Hogarth for Classic FM. In 2020, during his time at the Guildhall School, Liam performed in a Russian Song recital as part of the UK/Russia Year of Culture in the Rimsky-Korsakov Museum, in St Petersburg.

Liam has participated in Masterclasses led by artists including Joyce DiDonato, Brigitte Fassbaender, Malcolm Martineau, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Ian Bostridge, Ann Murray, Edith Wiens, Helmut Deutsch and Roger Vignoles.

Liam also appears regularly in theatres throughout the UK as part of The Two Highland Lads – a Scottish variety duo, alongside fellow Perth baritone Kenneth Maciver, and Leonard Brown and his All Star Band.

Liam is grateful for the generous support and sponsorship of:

• Bicentenary Scholarship from RAM

• The Countess of Munster Musical Trust

• Help Musicians UK

• The Drake Calleja Trust

• The Caird Trust

• Dewar Arts Award

• The Cross Trust

• Jimmie Cairncross Charitable Trust

• Goldsmiths’ UK

• Thorntons Trust

Liam is represented by Nicki Wenham at Rayfield Allied.