Neil Jenkins, the internationally known tenor, conductor and music editor, was a Chorister at Westminster Abbey, and a Choral Scholar at King’s College Cambridge. Whilst there he was the first tenor in the renowned vocal group ‘The Kings Singers’, and sang in the first concerts given by John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir and David Atherton’s London Sinfonietta. He subsequently studied in the Opera School at the RCM where he formed the Kensington Consort with, among others, Sir Thomas Allen and Brian Kay. He made his debut in 1967 in a recital at the Purcell Room with Roger Vignoles, and sang and recorded with the Deller Consort, under the direction of Alfred Deller, for ten years, whilst establishing himself as an opera singer at Sir Roger Norrington’s Kent Opera. In the 1970s he was appointed as an RCM singing professor by Sir David Willcocks, for whom he became a regular soloist with the Bach Choir, especially in the Bach Passions.

He has carved out a unique career, being equally at home as an Operatic, Oratorio and Recital singer; and combining this with an increasingly important role as a musicologist. In 2003 he was appointed to a Cambridge Fellowship to enable him to write a book about Handel’s favourite English tenor: John Beard. Neil has translated and edited all of Bach’s major choral works for the New Novello Choral Edition, and Haydn’s ‘The Seasons’ and ‘The Creation’ for King’s Music.  He has produced several song albums for OUP and Kevin Mayhew Ltd.

He has recorded under such eminent batons as those of Bernstein, Britten, Marriner, Mackerras, Chailly, Nagano, Andrew Davis, Haitink, Norrington, Parrott, Gardiner and Hickox. He is also known for his performances of contemporary music, where he has been directed by Rattle, Henze, Oramo, Atherton, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Jac van Steen, Boulez and André Previn. Neil has sung with all of Britain’s leading opera companies. Recent performances have taken him to New York, Chicago, Berlin, Paris, Lyon, Amsterdam, Geneva, Santiago, Dublin, Belfast and Tel Aviv. He appeared as ‘Arnalta’ in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea with WNO and on television, and repeated the role in 2006 at Buxton and Aldeburgh. Between September 2006 and February of this year he managed to combine the role of ‘Irus’ in The Return of Ulysses for WNO with a concurrent production of Hansel and Gretel, as the ‘Witch’, for OTC Ireland. His performances in Kent Opera’s King Priam and Glyndebourne Festival’s Lulu and Higglety Pigglety Pop are available on video. He will join WNO once more in 2008 for a new production of Falstaff.

In 2004 Neil was honoured by the Worshipful Company of Musicians with the presentation of the “Sir Charles Santley Memorial Award” for his achievements in his singing career, and his labours in producing new scholarly Bach editions for the Novello Choral Series. Neil is President of the Haywards Heath Music Club, the Shoreham Oratorio Choir and the Grange Choral Society of Bournemouth; Vice-President of the Brighton Competitive Music Festival and the Huntingdon Philharmonic Society; and is Patron of the Goldsmith’s Choral Union.

The year 2007 marks the 40th anniversary of Neil’s London debut, and he will be celebrating this in November at a special concert with his large choir, the Sussex Chorus - based in mid-Sussex - which he has conducted since 2002.

Neil Jenkins' significant events in a 40-year career

1967	September	Joined the Deller Consort, and made 1st recordings for Harmonia Mundi label
1967	October 27th	London Debut Recital, Purcell Room, with Roger Vignoles
1967	December	1st performances of the title role in Britten’s St Nicolas
1968	May 17th	First solo BBC Broadcast – Haydn Great Organ Mass
1968	August 17th	Operatic Debut in Menotti’s The Consul, produced by Giancarlo Menotti
1968-9		Guest soloist with Gary Bertini’s Israel Chamber Orchestra for 2 seasons singing Britten’s Serenade & Finzi’s Dies Natalis amongst other solo tenor works
1970		Debuts in RFH (March) & RAH (December); 1st solo recording (Finzi song-cycle)
1971		Performs Dies Natalis with Newbury Strings, conducted by Christopher Finzi
1972		Winner of the NFMS Award; 1st Prom; 1st appearance with Kent Opera 1st TV appearance in Verdi’s Falstaff; 1st work with Benjamin Britten
1974		WNO debut; Professor of Singing at R.C.M; 1st Three Choirs Festival
1975		1st concert with David Willcocks and the Bach Choir; 1st Aldeburgh Festival
1976		‘Johnny Inkslinger’ in Britten’s Paul Bunyan at Aldeburgh and on tour
1979		1st appearance with Netherlands Opera in The Consul, produced by Menotti
1981		Peter Grimes at Brighton Festival; Scottish Opera debut in Pearl Fishers
1981–5		Records entire canon of G & S operettas for BBC Radio 2, conductor Mackerras
1982		1st appearance at Glyndebourne in Higglety Pigglety Pop, recorded on Video
1983		Opera North debut in Eugene Onegin & The Cunning Little Vixen
1986		1st appearance with Geneva Opera in Strauss Elektra, revived & recorded *1990
1987		Soloist in Tippett’s A Child of our Time at televised First Night of the Proms 1st appearances of the Jenkins Family Singers, later the Neil Jenkins Chorale
1989		Soloist in Bernstein’s Candide recorded for DG, conducted by the composer
1991		1st appearance with Ditchling Choral Society, as Evangelist in St John Passion
1993		First musical editions, recordings and publications for Kevin Mayhew Ltd.
1995		First musical editions and translations for Novello Edition and OUP
1995 - 2001		Begins his conducting career as Musical Director of Brighton Chamber Choir
2002		Appointed Cummins-Harvey Fellow Commoner at Girton College, Cambridge
2002 - present		Musical Director of Ditchling Choral Society, later Sussex Chorus
2004		Sir Charles Santley Memorial Award presented by Worshipful Co. of Musicians
2007	August	Begins Ardingly International Music School (AIMS) with his wife Penny .....

The Times Saturday 28th October *1967    

“Welcome to a new English Tenor”
“Well-schooled tenors are never thick on the ground, so when a new one, such as Neil Jenkins, appears on the musical scene word spreads fast – and word was confirmed at his Purcell Room recital. Here is a clear, soundly produced, not over-large voice, rather in the Wilfred Brown mould. Such was his assurance that there was hardly a bad note or an ill-formed phrase all evening, doubtless the fruit of hard training...”

See www.neiljenkins.com for more information