Lee David Bowen - Tenor

With his rich and versatile voice, and experience as an actor and performer, Lee David Bowen has brought a wide range of characters and musical styles to life, from portraying Captain Nolan in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic with the English National Opera to Ismaele in Nabucco, and winning acclaim from audiences and critics alike. Lee now specialises in the Charakter/Spieltenor repertoire, especially Mime Das Rheingold and Siegfried, Die Hexe Hänsel und Gretel and Aegisth Elektra.

Lee was born in Swansea, South Wales, Originally a successful chef, he entered the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as a baritone, graduating in 1999. Whilst there, he sang Mozart’s Papageno and Figaro under the baton of Anthony Negus, also preparing the Figaro in a masterclass with Carlo Rizzi. Whilst at RWCMD, Lee’s teachers included two great tenors, John Mitchinson and Dennis O’Neill CBE, both of whom felt his future lay as a tenor in the nineteenth-century German and Italian repertoire.

In 2019, Lee was engaged for Wagnerian roles for the first time, when he understudied Mime and Froh in the Longborough Festival ; later he also created Korngold’s Graf Albert in Die Tote Stadt there.

Lee has forged an illustrious career with companies such as the English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, and Longborough Festival Opera, captivating audiences the world over with a diverse range of performances. Renowned pianist and coach Michael Pollock has been an integral part of Lee's artistic development, as well as his current teacher, eminent Australian tenor Anthony Roden. He has also gained invaluable experience by preparing Loge and Mime with the late tenor Graham Clark, who gave legendary performances at Bayreuth in the 1980s and 90s.

For English National Opera, he sang Captain Nolan in the British premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic and the White Minister in Ligeti’s The Grand Macabre ; with Welsh National Opera, he created the role of Dolffin in Gwyneth Lewis and Julian Philllips’s opera for children ; for Opera North, he has performed the First Armed Man/the Priest in The Magic Flute ; roles for English Touring Opera have included Remendado Carmen (including performances Lille, France), Dancaïro Carmen, Guillot Manon, and Sellem The Rake’s Progress ; for Opera Holland Park, he has sung Malcolm Macbeth, L’Abate Andrea Chenier and Trin La Fanciulla del West; with Mid-Wales Opera, he has sung Remendado Carmen, directed by Aidan Lang, and Mr Upfold Albert Herring ; at Iford Arts, he has performed Dr Caius Falstaff ; and for British Youth Opera, Fiorello Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

 Lee maintains a busy concert career, with performances at leading venues including St. Martin’s in the Field and St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, and regular recitals at Bristol Cathedral ; he has also sung the Welsh and British National Anthems at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. Other notable performances include Bayreuth to Broadway and Heroic Voices in London.

In addition to the DVD and soundtrack album of Phantom of the Opera, Lee’s recordings include Tom King in Daniel and Laura Curtis’s The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi, on Spotify ; he also sings in the 2017 film Canaries.