JOHNNY HERFORD (baritone) won the Song Prize at the 2013 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and the Jean Meikle Duo Prize at the 2013 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He studied at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Mark Wildman. He enjoys singing a wide range of repertoire, with a particular interest in contemporary and  twentieth century music. He has sung principal roles in operas by Judith Weir and Jonathan Dove, and memorably in the world premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Kommilitonen. Other operatic performances have included The Magic Flute (Papageno), Albert Herring (Sid), and The Merry Widow (Danilo). On the concert platform, Herford appears as a soloist in music from Monteverdi to the present day, including Bach Passions, B-Minor Mass, and Christmas Oratorio, Haydn Seasons, Mendelssohn Elijah, Brahms German Requiem, Mahler Rückert-Lieder, and Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs. As a recitalist he has performed at the Wigmore Hall, at Kings Place, at the Oxford Lieder Festival, as well as on BBC Radio 3's 'In Tune'.  Repertoire has included Schubert's Winterreise and Die Schöne Müllerin, Schumann's Myrthen and Britten's Songs and Proverbs of William Blake. This season, Herford will record Mendelssohn songs with Malcolm Martineau and make his debut with English Touring Opera.