Classical bass vocalist and Director of The Travelling Opera

Peter Knapp grew up in St Albans, near London, where he was a cathedral chorister and lay clerk, and then studied at St John’s College Cambridge, where he sang in the Chapel Choir and read English.

He studied singing privately in London and in Italy, where he worked with the Italian baritone Tito Gobbi, and after working in professional choirs and choruses, he made his solo debut in as Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne.

Moving into training, directing and conducting performers, he was Director of Opera at the Royal Academy of Music, set up British Youth Opera and then set up his own company, The Travelling Opera, which toured extensively in the UK and France and gave London seasons at Sadlers Wells, and the South Bank and Barbican concert halls.

He has also created his own small-scale production, All you Ever Wanted to Know about Opera!, which he performs in theatres and festivals, as well as at corporate and charity fund-raising events.