George Robarts is the winner of the 2025 Lotte Lenya Competition. He was awarded the $25,000 First Prize by the Kurt Weill Foundation for a programme of patter songs from G&S to Sondheim, earning plaudits for his “phenomenal acting”, “impeccable delivery”, and a “near-perfect” performance of Kurt Weill.

George’s gift for rapid-fire text and his “great penchant for comedy” (Opera Scene) have led to engagements across multiple genres. Alongside his classical work as a Young Artist at Garsington, Longborough, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Oxford Song Festival, he has carved out a niche of his own in cabaret, performing Noël Coward in concert alongside Dame Felicity Lott and Graham Johnson, and devising original performances around Weill, Brecht, and Weimar Germany.

An accomplished linguist and professional translator, 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.

Upon graduation from the Guildhall in 2023, George made his festival debut in The Fairy Queen at Longborough, starring in a singer-actor multi-role as the Drunken Poet and Bottom. In 2024 he covered Starveling A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Garsington Opera, and in 2025 he plays the Commissario and covers Barone Douphol La traviata for the Grange Festival.

A stand-out performer of English repertoire, his Britten roles include Junius The Rape of Lucretia for British Youth Opera, and Noye Noye’s Fludde with a 300-strong children’s chorus at St Edmundsbury Cathedral. For Cumbria Opera Group, he has performed Mozart in English as Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro and Leporello Don Giovanni. Comic cameo roles include Zweiter Diener Capriccio for the Edinburgh International Festival, Claudio Agrippina for Hampstead Garden Opera, and Pausanias in Chabrier’s Une éducation manquée for Stamford Arts.

On the recital platform, George debuted alongside Graham Johnson at the Leeds Song Festival in 2023, performing Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin on the cycle’s 200th anniversary. In 2025 he rejoins Johnson for ‘Schubert in 1825’ at the Oxford International Song Festival. This year George makes full recital debuts at Oxford Song, performing a programme of Folk Songs from the British Isles alongside pianist Thomas Eeckhout, and at St Martin-in-the-Fields, with a semi-staged performance of Roxanna Panufnik’s cycle Private Joe alongside the Kyan Quartet.

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

George has worked on outreach projects with Longborough Youth Chorus, Longborough Playground Opera, Garsington OperaFirst, the Oxford Song educational programme, Opera Holland Park: Inspire, Newham Music, and Flooded! Bury St Edmunds. He is currently working on a new English adaptation of Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera for schools audiences.

A fluent German and Italian speaker, George 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 prizes.

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

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

“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