British baritone George Robarts is the winner of the 2025 Lotte Lenya Competition in the USA.

The Kurt Weill Foundation awarded him First Prize for a patter programme showcasing his “phenomenal acting”, “impeccable delivery”, and “near-perfect” Kurt Weill interpretation.

A stand-out performer of English repertoire, George debuts with English Touring Opera in spring 2026 as Luiz in The Gondoliers.

With a gift for rapid-fire text and a “great penchant for comedy” (Opera Scene), he has performed cabaret songs alongside Dame Felicity Lott and Graham Johnson.

George is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and of the Young Artist Programmes at Garsington, Longborough, Oxford Song, the City Music Foundation, and the Edinburgh International Festival.

Recent opera highlights include Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro and Leporello Don Giovanni (Cumbria Opera), Commissario and cover Barone Douphol La traviata (Grange Festival), cover Starveling A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Garsington Opera), Junius The Rape of Lucretia (British Youth Opera), Zweiter Diener Capriccio (Edinburgh International Festival), and a singer-actor starring role as the Drunken Poet and Bottom The Fairy Queen (Longborough Festival Opera).

In recital, George has sung with Graham Johnson for Die schöne Müllerin at Leeds Lieder and “Schubert in 1825” at Oxford Song, for Johnson’s bicentenary Schubert lectures.

Recital highlights in 2025 include Folk Songs from Britain & Ireland with Thomas Eeckhout at Oxford Song, Roxanna Panufnik’s cycle Private Joe (2000) with the Kyan Quartet at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Poulenc’s Chansons gaillardes in Cambridge, and Butterworth’s Shropshire Lad in London.

George and pianist Edward Picton-Turbervill were prizewinners at the 2025 International Vocal Competition ’s-Hertogenbosch in its inaugural “Theatre in Song” edition, winning praise for their “brilliant interplay, musical and comedic timing, and their ability to intertwine humour with melancholy”.

A published translator from German and Italian, George’s debut opera translation The Revolting Maid (from Pergolesi’s La serva padrona) won the 2024 John Dryden Translation Prize and was premiered in London in 2025 thanks to a generous funding grant from the City Music Foundation.

Solo concert engagements in 2024 and 2025 include Five Mystical Songs (Sinfonia Smith Square), Petite Messe Solennelle (Edinburgh International Festival), Messiah (Mayfield Festival), Duruflé Requiem (Oxford Song), Christmas Oratorio, Fauré Requiem and Mozart Requiem (St Martin-in-the-Fields), the Bach Passions, The Creation, and Elijah (UK choral societies).

A fluent German and Italian speaker, he read Modern Languages at Oxford University, graduating with First-Class Honours in 2017. He has literary, academic and commercial book publications to his name, as well as an award-winning opera libretto and three placings in major translation awards.

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

“Phenomenal actor…
every moment spontaneous…
impeccable delivery of lyrics”
Kurt Weill Foundation: Lotte Lenya Prize

George has an extensive recital repertoire, and while at Guildhall was awarded the Paul Hamburger Song Prize by Graham Johnson.

He takes a special interest in the music of the Weimar Republic, championing the songs of Hanns Eisler and Viktor Ullmann. He has created several performances of song and poetry from the German anti-fascist resistance at venues including Oxford’s Levine Auditorium.

In concert, George’s nuanced command of German has won praise for his Bach interpretations, performing Pilate St John Passion at St Bartholomew’s, New York City (New College, Oxford / English Concert Players), and Jesus St Matthew Passion at various UK venues. His concert repertoire encompasses solo Bach and Telemann cantatas, Handel oratorios, Requiems by Mozart, Brahms, Fauré and Duruflé, and modern oratorio from Michael Tippett to Margaret Bonds.

He has worked on outreach projects with Longborough Youth Chorus, Longborough Playground Opera, Garsington OperaFirst, the Oxford Song educational programme, and Opera Holland Park: Inspire.

During his studies, he was fortunate 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 books on music, including Diedrich Diederichsen’s Aesthetics of Pop Music (Polity Press, 2023) and Jenny Haase’s essays on Schubert’s Winterreise for German Romanticism and Latin America (MHRA, 2023).

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