Toby the Tenor

My name is Toby Spence

Having completed post-graduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, I started my career as a professional tenor in 1995. Since then, I have followed a path that has meandered through periods of ambition-fulfilling success and more challenging years following an operation for cancer that left me without a voice in 2012. At that time, while I was unable to sing, I lost my sense of self. After a prolonged period of recuperation and hard work, I regained my voice and resumed my career with appearances in leading roles at Covent Garden, Munich State Opera, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, The Met in New York and elsewhere. The work to regain my voice and my sense of purpose affirmed my conviction that my passion for music and performance will always define me.

Following that tough time, I applied myself to understanding why music plays a key role in the lives of so many people across the world. I have written for The Guardian, The Times, delivered an address for the Council of British Phonographic Industries and elsewhere on subjects relating to the better understanding and promotion of classical music in the UK’s crowded cultural offering. 

I was asked to join a panel assembled by New York University. The purpose of the panel was to explore the challenges facing classical music in modern times. The scope for the panel was ambitious and, in the event, encouraging managers of orchestras and opera companies to talk unguardedly about finances, union negotiations and shifts in audience tastes was not easy. If we learnt anything from the meetings over the two years we spent exploring the issues, it was that every challenge was specific to its community, at the root of which lay communication. There were no panacea fixes that could be applied to every organisation. Every orchestra, opera company, venue, festival and individual had to find the specific tools for the engagement of different communities. It was all about communication and before that, preparing and thinking smarter about the message to be communicated.

I enjoy talking and writing about my life as a musician and the music that makes my working life so rich. I try to incorporate undervalued qualities, such as personality, vulnerability and fallibility when I write. Anyone observing the professionals of classical music could be forgiven for thinking we operate at a superhuman level, striving for perfection and extraordinary heights of technical ability. I intend to lift the lid on classical music and expel the mystery that hangs around it. I hope to write stories and observations that are human and relatable for anyone who likes classical music but who finds it unknowable or austere.

I relish the challenges of understanding the gap between my knowledge and that of individuals and groups of people with whom I talk who are not musicians. I often learn something by talking with people about music. While putting the concepts of music into words can be challenging, it can be educative and fascinating for all.

Readers are welcome to leave feedback in the comments section. I look forward to reading your ideas for me to write about and I will do my best to answer any questions you might have.

Welcome to Toby the Tenor’s blog.