George Robarts is a versatile singer and actor with a vibrant stage presence and a ‘great penchant for comedy’ (Opera Scene).

In May 2025 he is a Finalist in the Lotte Lenya Competition in New York, where he will perform a programme of operetta, Kurt Weill, and classic & contemporary musical theatre. This summer he joins the Grange Festival Chorus for La traviata (cover Barone Douphol), Die Fledermaus, and Bernstein on Broadway.

A stand-out performer of English repertoire, in 2024 he took on three new Britten roles: Starveling (cover) A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Garsington Opera, Junius The Rape of Lucretia for British Youth Opera, and Noye Noye’s Fludde in a new staging at St Edmundsbury Cathedral. The same year he joined the Garsington Chorus for Platée and Un giorno di regno, appeared at the Usher Hall as Zweiter Diener Capriccio for the Edinburgh International Festival, and sang the comic cameo role of Pausanias in Chabrier’s Une éducation manquée at Stamford Arts.

George is an accomplished linguist and professional translator. March 2025 saw the premiere of his debut opera translation The Revolting Maid, from Pergolesi’s La serva padrona, which won the 2024 John Dryden Prize and was awarded a generous funding grant by the City Music Foundation.

George made his recital debut in 2023 alongside world-renowned pianist Graham Johnson, performing Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin at Leeds Lieder Festival in a lecture recital for the cycle’s 200th anniversary. Later that year he re-joined Graham Johnson alongside Dame Felicity Lott to perform Noël Coward songs at Henry Wood Hall in London. In 2024-25, he appears in recital at the Oxford International Song Festival before Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton’s headline recital, for Ludlow English Song alongside Harriet Burns, and with the Kyan Quartet at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

George is a City Music Foundation Artist, an Oxford Song Young Artist, and was previously a Garsington Opera Alvarez Young Artist, an Edinburgh International Festival Rising Star, and a Longborough Festival Opera Emerging Artist.

He starred in Longborough’s 2023 opera-drama adaptation of The Fairy Queen as Bottom (in the original Shakespeare) and the Drunken Poet (sung role). The same year, he played Leporello Don Giovanni for Cumbria Opera Group, Claudio Agrippina for Hampstead Garden Opera, and also appeared with Longborough Playground Opera, Opera Holland Park and Nederlandse Reisopera.

Solo concert engagements in 2024–25 include Petite Messe Solennelle at the Edinburgh International Festival, Five Mystical Songs at Smith Square, Elijah in Godalming, Christmas Oratorio at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Messiah at the Mayfield Festival, and The Creation at Chipping Campden.

In 2023 he graduated with Distinction from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama postgraduate programme, where he studied under Robert Dean and won the Paul Hamburger Prize.

His studies were generously supported by the Kathleen Trust and the Josephine Baker Trust.

A fluent German and Italian speaker, George previously read Modern Languages at Oxford University. He graduated with First-Class Honours in 2017, and is now a professional literary translator alongside singing. He has numerous academic and commercial publications, three placings in major prizes, and an award-winning opera libretto translation to his name.

“George Robarts deserves special praise for his lanky, delightful Bottom”
★★★★★
Plays to See: The Fairy Queen

“Robarts’ mastery of coloratura was among the best of them all”
Classical Music Daily: Agrippina

“George Robarts brought a commanding intensity to his portrayal of Jesus”
Daily Info: St Matthew Passion,
Dorchester Abbey

George has an extensive recital repertoire and a ravenous appetite for discovering new songs. When not performing his favourite cycles (among them Dichterliebe, Chansons gaillardes, and Six Songs from a Shropshire Lad), he enjoys dusting off neglected Victoriana and reviving music by composers erased from history. He takes a special interest in the music of the Weimar Republic and 1930s Germany, championing the songs of Viktor Ullmann and Hanns Eisler. He has created several performances of song and poetry from the anti-fascist resistance with pianist Edward Picton-Turbervill at venues including Oxford’s Levine Auditorium, offering up rarely heard works by Gideon Klein, Erwin Schulhoff and Ilse Weber.

In concert, George’s nuanced command of German has earned him praise in his interpretations of the Bach Passions, performing Pilate St John Passion at St Bartholomew’s, New York City with New College, Oxford and the English Concert Players and Jesus St Matthew Passion at various UK venues. His concert repertoire includes solo Bach and Telemann cantatas, Handel oratorio including Messiah and Jephtha, Requiems by Mozart, Brahms, Fauré and Duruflé, and modern oratorio from Michael Tippett to Margaret Bonds. Concert chorus work includes projects with the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Concert and La Nuova Musica.

George moonlights in cabaret and revue music, with a particular taste for Noel Coward and Tom Lehrer. He frequently sings light entertainment sets in living rooms for Pipit House Concerts, and is also active in outreach and education, performing for the Opera Holland Park: Inspire programme and working with the Longborough Youth Chorus on local community performances.

During his studies, he was fortunate enough to sing in masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Emma Kirkby, John Mark Ainsley, Graham Vick, Donald Maxwell, Christopher Purves, Roderick Williams, Richard Hetherington and David Gowland, and to be coached in performance projects by Graham Johnson, Iain Burnside, Alison Buchanan and Roderick Williams.

George has translated several publications on music, including Diedrich Diederichsen’s Aesthetics of Pop Music (Polity Press, 2023) and Jenny Haase’s work on Schubert’s Winterreise for German Romanticism and Latin America (MHRA, 2023). Current translation projects include song cycles, a 1920s German musical, and a collection of 19th-century cautionary poems.

Biography not to be reproduced without prior permission. Please contact George for an up-to-date version.

Cover image: Christopher Tribble, 2023

Home page image: Julian Guidera, 2024