Ian Boughton was born in Bedfordshire. He began singing at an early age and received his first prize-winning role at the age of 15 as Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady. He went on to become a leading church chorister and, while studying singing with Malcolm Singer, became a founder member of Bedford Youth Opera. He later studied acting at Morley Opera School, attended Canford School of Music, has been coached by Piero Mattei, has participated in masterclasses with Benjamin Luxon and Paolo Silveri and has gained a bachelor degree with honours in humanities and music. He now lives in Hitchin. Over the past two decades Ian has developed very wide experience in both opera and oratorio and features as soloist in world première recordings for Hyperion and Cala Records, working with the City of London Sinfonia and Philharmonia orchestras. He has performed over 25 different operatic roles in the United Kingdom and overseas, ranging from Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville to Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutti; and from Sid in Albert Herring to Verdi’s Macbeth and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. He has also played lighter roles in G&S and Bernstein productions. Very recently he sang Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana for St Albans Operatic Society. Ian is equally experienced on the concert platform and has appeared as a soloist with several choirs in the Home Counties, notably North Herts Guild of Singers, Stevenage Choral Society, Luton Choral Society, the Hardynge Choir, Biggleswade & District Choral Society and Letchworth Chorale. During a visit to Egypt in 2000, he was given the opportunity to conduct the Cairo Choral Society in a rehearsal of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. In addition to singing, Ian has devoted much of his time to The Rutland Boughton Music Trust, initially as Librarian and now as Administrator. He is particularly pleased to have sung with Hitchin Symphony Orchestra in a performance of his grandfather’s Oliver Cromwell Symphony – a work that has been of considerable fascination to him for some while. (November 2005)