^{BY SIMON MUNDY | FIRST PUBLISHED 13 JUN 2026}

There is a grand tradition of recital and oratorio tenors in Britain. Over the last 50 years, the leading names have included, among many others, Robert Tear, Ian Partridge, and these days Nicholas Mulroy, who has been cementing his place in the league for the last 20 years or so. Nicholas says ‘I really found Early Music at Cambridge.’ He was studying modern languages, not music, though he also became a choral scholar. ‘I bought CDs at a rate that was very bad for my bank balance. I suppose my models as I was listening were Anthony Rolf-Johnson, Philip Langridge and Charles Daniels.’

The character of Nicholas Mulroy’s voice has changed as it has matured – moving away from the lighter tones to a fuller sound. ‘I’m always working at the voice as it changes. I don’t do so much French Baroque repertoire any more, which needs that high light tone. I’m doing more Purcell and Monteverdi. Training is there to help the body adapt to the physiological changes as the voice gets older. The task is getting the diary into shape as one goes from one challenge and vocal style to another – trying to keep all those colours in the air and available.’

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^{Nicholas Mulroy & Toby Carr performing Purcell’s An Evening Hymn}

That diary is going to take some managing over the coming months. He will be at the Oxford Early Music Weekend (presented by Oxford Festival of the Arts in partnership with Continuo Foundation) with lutenist Elizabeth Kenny in the Grove Auditorium of Magdalen College on 21 June, marking the 400th anniversary of John Dowland’s death. He says, ‘Liz Kenny is one of my favourite musicians and we’ve been collaborating for 15 or 20 years. Our programme for Dowland 400 is “mysteries” because he was probably a spy [for Robert Cecil, who headed James I's secret service] as well as everything else’. We joked that it was a role worth remembering whenever performing in the Great Hall of Hatfield House, built and still owned by the Cecils.

Before that, there is the release this September of Monteverdi's Vespers, sung with one voice to a part, with I Fagiolini, a programme they will be bringing to Kings Place. Nicholas has a long partnership with I Fagiolini’s founder, Robert Hollingworth. As well as collaborating on stage and record, they present a podcast series together. ‘I’ve been working with him for 25 years. The podcast, Choral Chihuahua, is for talking about all those nerdy vocal things. There are not many people talking about that stuff, but it is something that unites the community and brings us all together. The podcast is meant light-heartedly and just to give space for those in our community to talk about relevant (albeit niche) things.’

I first came across Nicholas properly exactly 20 years ago when he sang in the superb recording of the Dublin version of Messiah with the Dunedin Consort on the Linn label. My impression was reinforced by his delightful singing with Susan Hamilton in Acis and Galatea. With the Dunedin, he will be performing Odes to Music by Purcell, Blow and their contemporaries at the Ryedale Festival on 10 July. These days, he has become the Edinburgh-based ensemble’s Associate Director. ‘I've directed a few things going back to 2017, like Monteverdi madrigals. I don’t conduct a lot, though I have taken on Trinity Boys Choir. I prefer to perform works as chamber music, not with someone in front waving. I never like to prescribe too much in advance. We know how to make music – it should be coherent and eloquent.’

^{Nicholas Mulroy performing the opening aria, ‘Comfort ye’ from the Dublin version of Handel's Messiah | Dunedin Consort & John Butt, Linn Records 2006}

As with all the tenors in the line in which Nicholas has followed, Messiah and Bach’s Passions have become a big part of his winter seasons. For Messiah, he will be in the Temple Church on 3 December (tickets will be released soon) and when we spoke he had just performed the St Matthew Passion with Masaaki Suzuki and the Netherlands Bach Society. ‘I sang in 14 performances this Easter.’

Besides Early Music and oratorio, Nicholas is knowledgeable about and committed to the music of Latin and South America. ‘I lived in Ecuador as part of my degree course, and I came to love the music of that area in all its guises. We're not good in the UK at exploring music in other languages,’ with the exception of Italian and Latin, ‘but I love their music.’ At this year’s Bath Music Festival, he joined forces with accordionist Ryan Corbett for a tango evening of Astor Piazzolla. Their programme also included work by Víctor Jara, the Chilean songwriter, theatre director and activist who was tortured and murdered by Pinochet’s regime in 1973. ‘Part of our job as musicians is to bear witness to these things.’

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^{Nicholas Mulroy & Toby Carr performing Víctor Jara’s Te recuerdo Amanda}

On 25 June, Nicholas will be joining Classico Latino in a room with very unclassical vibes: the original Pizza Express Jazz venue in Soho’s Dean Street, founded in 1969 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Peter Boizot (once a chorister in Peterborough Cathedral). Two nights later, on 27 June, Nicholas will be bringing Havana Nights to the Stour Festival in Kent. With Mulroy, the music-making is serious, but seldom too solemn.

To view details of Nicholas Mulroy’s upcoming concert appearances, visit his Continuo Connect profile.