Peter Savidge

MA (Cantab)

Vocal Studies professor

In a career which lasted forty-five years, Peter Savidge appeared with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North (where his collaboration lasted over thirty years), Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Garsington and in opera houses in France, Belgium,
Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Canada and Japan. His repertory included the major roles in operas by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rossini, Puccini, Strauss, Bizet, Gounod and Massenet and was particularly associated with those of Benjamin Britten.

He has performed and recorded with Charles Mackerras, André Previn, Colin Davis, Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner, Carlo Rizzi, Richard Armstrong, Steuart Bedford and many others. Concert and recital work have taken him to Australia, New Zealand and South America, in London with David Willcocks and the Bach Choir, and throughout Europe, with Ton Koopman, Frans Brüggen and Ottavio Dantone. He has recorded albums of songs by Vaughan Williams, Bax and Bantock.

His musical life began as a chorister at Westminster Abbey. Graduating from Cambridge University with a first-class honours degree in History, Peter studied on the opera course at the Guildhall. He then became a founder member of the English Music Theatre Company under Colin Graham and Steuart Bedford. He was helped at various stages of his career by various teachers - John Carol Case, Hans Hotter, Rudolph Piernay and Robert Dean. He ran the vocal course at the LCM for five years before joining the RCM Vocal Faculty, where his pupils have included Håkan Ekenäs, Kostas Smoriginas, Robyn Lyn Evans, Ed Grint and Tim Nelson. His teaching attempts to demystify the techniques required, concentrating on vocal freedom, imagination and communication in performance.

In a career that has ranged from Ravenal in Showboat at The London Palladium to Gunther in Götterdämmerung in Scottish Opera's Ring Cycle, he is very aware that openmindedness and versatility is important to succeed in today’s musical climate. He is the Casting Director of the Thursford Christmas Spectacular, employing fifty singers annually in the largest show of its kind in Europe.

Faculties / departments: Vocal Studies