BIOGRAPHY
"Ainsworth has always been blessed with an unusually high, pure tenor. Now it thrills with remarkable power and expressivity.”
Stagedoor 2016
Known for his “exquisite control and emotional directness,” Colin Ainsworth has built a versatile and compelling career performing both the iconic roles of Classical and Baroque opera and bringing new contemporary works to life, while continuing to expand into the repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries. Renowned for his stage presence, he has performed the title roles in Idomeneo, Orphée et Euridice, Pygmalion, Castor et Pollux, Roberto Devereux and Albert Herring; Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer; Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Fenton in Falstaff, Tonio in La Fille du Régiment, Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Pylades in Iphigénie en Tauride, Renaud in Lully’s Armide, David in David et Jonathas, Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress, Alfredo in La Traviata, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Admète in Alceste, and as Lensky in Eugene Onegin.
An avid supporter of new works, he has appeared in the world premieres of John Estacio’s Lillian Alling at Vancouver Opera, Stuart MacRae’s The Assassin Tree at the Edinburgh International Festival, Victor Davies’ The Transit of Venus, and Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna at Sadler’s Wells in London and at the Luminato Festival. His performances have taken him to prestigious stages including the Royal Opera (London), Canadian Opera Company, Chicago Opera Theater, Glimmerglass Opera, L’Opéra Français de New York, Opera Atelier, Pacific Opera Victoria, the Greek National Opera, Teatro Nacional São Carlos, Vancouver Opera, and Seattle Opera.
As a prolific concert singer, Mr. Ainsworth has appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Pygmalion, Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco, Music of the Baroque in Chicago with Dame Jane Glover, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra with Jeffrey Kahane, Mercury Baroque in Houston, Les Violons du Roy in Montreal with Bernard Labadie, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Grand Philharmonic Choir, and Rhode Island Philharmonic with Leonard Slatkin. He has also appeared at Carnegie Hall with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra, Festival de Lanaudière, Elora and the Aldeburgh Connection festivals, the Oregon Bach Festival with John Nelson and Dame Jane Glover, and the Göttingen Handel Festival with Nicholas McGegan. His vast concert and recital repertoire includes Bach’s Mass in B Minor, St. Matthew Passion, St. John’s Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin and Janácek’s Diary of One Who Vanished.
Mr. Ainsworth’s growing discography includes Vivaldi’s La Griselda (Naxos), Castor et Pollux (Naxos), Schubert Among Friends (Marquis Classics), Gloria in Excelsis Deo with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (CBC Records), the collected masses of Vanhal, Haydn, and Cherubini with Nicholas McGegan (Naxos), and the première recording of Derek Holman’s The Heart Mislaid which was included on the Aldeburgh Connection’s Our Own Songs (Marquis Classics). His second recording featuring the music of Derek Holman, A Play of Passion, features music written for him with Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata on piano. He also appears in a live DVD recording of Lully’s Persée with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Euroarts) and has been invited twice to guest host on CBC Radio 2’s program, This is my music.
Recent performances include Handel’s Messiah with Dame Jane Glover and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, recitals in Ottawa, Victoria, and Vancouver, Charpentier’s David and Jonathas with Opera Atelier in Toronto, Alceste with Opera in Concert, and the recording release of Jeffrey Ryan’s Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation with the Vancouver Symphony.
