Allan Clayton studied at St John’s College, Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. An Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and former BBC New Generation Artist from 2007-2009, his awards also include “The Queen’s Commendation for Excellence” and an inaugural Sir Elton John Scholarship at the RAM, the John Christie Award for his Glyndebourne Festival debut as Albert Herring, and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

Allan takes the lead role in Brett Dean’s Hamlet, which will have its world premiere at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2017 as part of the nationwide celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. During March 2017, Allan will sing the role of David in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Further appearances during 2017 will include Opera Comique and Frankfurt Opera.

He made his debut at the Komische Oper, Berlin in 2014 with Castor/Castor et Pollux and Tamino/Die Zäuberflöte. and his debut at the Teatro Real, Madrid in Handel’s Alcina in 2015. For English National Opera he has sung Cassio/Otello, Castor/Castor et Pollux and Lysander/A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His other roles include Male Chorus/The Rape of Lucretia for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour; and Ferrando/Cosi fan tutte for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He was an integral part of George Benjamin’s award-winning opera Written on Skin at the Netherlands Opera, the Theatre du Capitole Toulouse, the Royal Opera House, Wiener Festwochen, and the Bayerische Staatsoper, following on from the world premiere of the work at the 2012 Festival de Aix-en-Provence. At the end of 2016 he took part in the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground in Los Angeles and then the European premiere at the Barbican Centre in London with Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Thomas Ades.

Allan also has a busy and varied concert career, with appearances that include The Dream of Gerontius at the Barbican Centre in London with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, Britten’s War Requiem with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov, Bruckner’s Te Deum with the Gürzenich Orchestra and Markus Stenz, Handel’s Messiah for the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston, and Britten’s Spring Symphony with both the Philharmonia and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Ed Gardner. He appears regularly at the BBC Proms, where he has sung the title role in Oedpius Rex with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo and also performed in Vaughan Williams’ Pastoral Symphony with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He has sung Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in Salzburg, the St Matthew Passion in London with the Bach Choir, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Hallé and London Philharmonic Orchestra, both with Sir Mark Elder.

Allan has given lieder recitals at the Cheltenham, Perth and Aldeburgh Festivals, and London’s Wigmore Hall. He joined forces with Paul Lewis in 2015 to perform Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin at the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds and the Wigmore Hall in London. Allan returns to the Wigmore Hall in July 2017 for a recital of Shakespeare Songs with Sophie Bevan, accompanied by Chris Glynn.