Oliver Sewell
Winner of the 2022 VINCERO Competition in Naples, Italy, New Zealand tenor Oliver Sewell began his vocal studies at University of Canterbury and the New Zealand School of Music. He was an Emerging Artist at New Zealand Opera before he moved to New York to complete his Master’s of Music in Classical Voice at Manhattan School of Music. From 2016-2019 he was a resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where roles included Tybalt Romeo et Juliette, Fernand La Favorite, Ferrando Cosi fan tutte, Alfredo La Traviata, and Brighella/Tanzmeister Ariadne auf Naxos among others.
Career highlights include Giannetto La gazza ladra with Will Crutchfield’s Teatro Nuovo in Lincoln Centre’s Rose Theatre, Handel’s Messiah with Columbus Symphony, Carmina Burana with New York Master Chorale at Alice Tully Hall, Mozart’s Mass in C Major at Carnegie Hall, the role of Ernesto Don Pasquale at Crested Butte Music Festival and Ramiro La Cenerentola at City Lyric Opera in New York. He appeared as Tamino in the MSM production of Die Zauberflöte.
In early 2020 he returned to New Zealand where he played Don Octavio in Wellington Opera’s Don Giovanni, Jaquino Fidelio with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and, also with Wellington Opera, the role of Alfredo La Traviata. Oliver joins the ensemble of Theater Bremen as principal tenor from season 2023-24.
“Oliver Sewell brought a sweetly ringing tenor to the ineffectual Giannetto and his splendid high notes emerged as a true extension of his voice rather than the piercing squawks one sometimes hears.” Christopher Corwin, 16 July, 2019, Parterre Box.
“Tenor Oliver Sewell served up vocal glamour as Giannetto, the son of prosperous farmers, who is in love with Ninetta, the family’s servant. ” Rick Perdian, Seen and Heard International, 23 July 2019
“As her rather ineffectual lover, Don Ottavio, tenor Oliver Sewell gave some of the finest singing of the evening in his two difficult arias, vocally secure and unfailingly lyrical. ” Roger Wilson, Dominion-Post, 21 April 2021
Contact
Deborah Sanders
Founder and Director
deborah@arbourartists.com