New Zealand-born Paul Whelan studied in Wellington and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. In 1993 he won the Lieder Prize in the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Career highlights include performances at Covent Garden, Netherlands Opera, Metropolitan Opera New York, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, English National Opera, Opera Australia, NBR New Zealand Opera and Opéra Bastille in Paris. In concert he has appeared with the Budapest, London and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, Bolshoi Theatre, Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Scottish and English Chamber Orchestras, BBC Philharmonic and Scottish Symphony Orchestras and at the Edinburgh, Dresden and New Zealand Festivals under conductors including Rattle, Bertini, Nagano, Hickox, Gergiev, Willcocks, Runnicles and Santi. He has appeared in recital at Wigmore Hall, St David’s Hall in Cardiff, the Cheltenham Festival and the Châtelet Theatre in Paris.

Paul’s operatic repertoire includes Marcello (La bohème), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), The Count (The Marriage of Figaro), Olivier (Capriccio), Silvio (Pagliacci), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Belcore and Dulcamara (The Elixir of Love), Escamillo (Carmen), the Four Villains (The Tales of Hoffmann), Méphistophélès (The Damnation of Faust) and the title roles in Don Giovanni and Eugene Onegin. Concert repertoire includes Bach’s St John Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Elgar’s The Apostles, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and Delius’ Sea Drift.

Paul performed in several concerts at the 2005 Perth International Arts Festival including Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death and Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Future engagements include Amfortas (Parsifal) with the New Zealand International Arts Festival. CDs include A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the LSO under Colin Davis, Kurt Weill’s Der Silbersee under Markus Stenz and recordings with the BBC Philharmonic and Scottish Symphony Orchestras.

Paul performed the role of Anténor in Dardanus (2005) for Pinchgut.

This bio taken from the last program in which Paul appeared.