Simon Keenlyside was born in London, studied zoology at Cambridge and singing with John Cameron at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
He made his operatic debut at the Hamburg State Opera as Count Almaviva ('Le Nozze di Figaro'). He has since sung in Geneva (Hamlet and Pelleas), San Francisco (Pelleas), Sydney (Figaro), Berlin (Figaro), Brussels (Orfeo), Paris (Papageno, Pelleas, Guglielmo, Yeletsky and Dandini), Vienna (Figaro, Marcello, Count Almaviva, Billy Budd and Papageno), Munich (Marcello, Ford, Count Almaviva and Wolfram), at the Metropolitan Opera, New York (Belcore, Marcello and Papageno), at the Salzburg Festival (Guglielmo and Papageno), La Scala, Milan (Papageno and Count Almaviva under Muti), in Ferrara (Don Giovanni under Abbado), and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Billy Budd under Hickox, Count Almaviva and Ford under Haitink, Don Giovanni under Mackerras, Valentin under Pappano, Belcore, Marcello, Guglielmo and Papageno under Colin Davis, Hamlet under Louis Langrée and Prospero in the world premiere of 'The Tempestš under Ades)
He will return to the Vienna State Opera (Count Almaviva, Posa and Don Giovanni) the Salzburg Festival (Pelleas and Papageno), the Royal Opera House (Papageno, Pelleas, Posa, Oreste and Prospero) and makes his debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Oreste).
Simon enjoys extensive concert work, appearing with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Abbado, the Berlin Philharmonic under Abbado, the City of Birmingham Symphony under Rattle, the London Symphony Orchestra under Colin Davis, the Philharmonia under von Dohnanyi and Sawallisch, the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Moest, the Vienna Philharmonic under Muti, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Charles Mackerras and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Welser-Moest.
Simon Keenlyside has appeared in recital in New York, San Francisco, Lisbon, Geneva, Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Ferrara, Rome, Brussels, London, Graz, the Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Salzburg, Munich and Schubertiade Festivals, at La Scala Milan and both the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna. He is also part of Trisha Brown's choreographed 'Winterreise', which has been performed at the Holland, Mostly Mozart (New York) Lucerne and Melbourne Festivals, at the Barbican, London and La Monnaie, Brussels.
For E.M.I. he has recorded two recital discs with Malcolm Martineau, of Schubert and Strauss, and - for Hyperion - a disc of Schumann Lieder with Graham Johnson. His recent recordings include 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' under Rattle for E.M.I., the title role in 'Don Giovanni' under Abbado for D.G., 'Carmina Burana' under Thielemann for D.G., Marcello in 'La Bohème' under Chailly for Decca, the title role in 'Billy Budd' under Hickox for Chandos and Count Almaviva in 'Le Nozze di Figaro' under Jacobs for Harmonia Mundi.
