Welcome back, Nicky

Everyone loves Nicky Spence. The infectious enthusiasm, the soothing Scottish accent and, of course, the unforgetable voice have won him BBC Music Magazine’s Personality of the Year in 2022, an OBE in 2023 and the 2024 RPS Singer Award. And now he’s joining BYO as a vice president.

Like lots of UK-based singers, Nicky is no stranger to BYO – he was in our summer production of Flight in 2008 and then played Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress the following year (photo evidence below, sorry Nicky). As one of our alumni, Nicky remembers his time at BYO as being incredibly important: ‘BYO gave me a huge leg up in the opera business namely as it’s where I met one of my first agents. It’s also where I learned so many important lessons about how to conduct myself as an opera singer and where I met some of the best colleagues, a lot of which I still work with today.’

He’ll be popping up across our work to help us in our mission to expand access to opera careers: ‘BYO offers the professional conditions to lift your artistry to the next level. We hopefully equip these young professionals with the skills they need to be employed in an ever changing landscape.’