BIOGRAPHY

Paul was born and brought up metres away from the south-western reaches of the M25. After leaving school, Paul first headed up north to study English and Drama at Leeds University, where he enjoyed specialising in modern British political drama. Paul then embarked on a teaching career; starting in a South London Comprehensive before eventually finding himself teaching English at Eton College (an institution, it turns out, that has provided many of the protagonists in modern British political drama). Teaching was a job that he relished, and Paul still occasionally returns to the classroom. His passion for singing was always in the wings though, and he eventually gave up full-time teaching to take up a scholarship on the postgraduate course at the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he was taught by David Pollard (still Paul's teacher). After leaving college he straightaway enjoyed a variety of singing and operatic jobs at companies from Batignano in Tuscany to the Battersea Arts Centre in SW11. Mainly, however, he learned his trade at Glyndebourne - singing in the chorus, covering a variety of principal roles, and performing roles in studio productions of works by Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov and Jonathan Dove.

Paul's career has never followed a traditional path - he was a late 'self-starter', and various interruptions to his planned international super-stardom(!) culminated in a road accident that left him re-learning how to walk. However, once fully recovered from this accident, the first job he undertook was to understudy the role of 1st Armed Man in Die Zauberflöte at Glyndebourne, requiring him to perform on stilts on a raked stage. Feeling suitably empowered, he then left Glyndebourne to try new solo opportunities, being particularly busy at the ENO – covering title roles such as Faust in Berlioz's Damnation of Faust, Offenbach’s Hoffman, and Gandhi in Glass's Satyagraha. In fact, as a regular 'cover', Paul is probably one of the busier singers of whom you have never heard. He has understudied nearly 400 performances without ever having ‘gone on’; learning and rehearsing an extraordinary range of roles at a wide range of houses, from Händel’s Jephtha at the ROH to Mao Tse Tung in Nixon in China at Scottish Opera. However, he is increasingly making it onto main stages in his own right, performing in small roles at Glyndebourne and the ENO, and soon debuting at Scottish Opera in a new Jonathan Dove opera in 2024 and on the main stage at the ROH as Emperor Altoum in Turandot in 2025. Internationally, recent career highlights have included making a significant debut at the Göttingen International Händel Festival, singing Varo in Händel's Arminio, and being invited to perform a solo recital. The opera was recorded live, and is available on iTunes. 

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Paul has always been a keen concert soloist, and even whilst still in his college year, sang for the annual Good Friday performance of Messiah at the RAH with the RPO. His oratorio work has since seen him perform a huge variety of works from Handel's oratorios to Verdi’s Requiem and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius. He has performed concerts in venues throughout the country from small parish churches to London’s Barbican centre, and has performed internationally as far away as Dubai. Paul’s solo recordings include a live charity performance of Mozart’s Requiem on the Hyperion label.