About Sam

American tenor Sam Utley was born and raised in Salem, Oregon. As an undergraduate at Brigham Young University his operatic credits included Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Septimius in Theodora, and Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi. Sam performed for two seasons at the Aquilon Music Festival, singing the roles of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, and the Opera Tenor in the modern premiere of Lully and LeGrande’s La Chûte de Phaëton. He also performed as a soloist with the BYU Singers and BYU Baroque Ensemble in their performances of Vivaldi’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Litaniae Lauretanae. In the summer of 2018 he performed in the UK as a fellow of the Cornish-American Song Institute, appearing as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, in addition to performing selections from On Wenlock Edge and Dichterliebe in recital. In January 2018 Sam won first place in BYU’s Young Artists in Voice competition.

Sam’s debut concert in London was to be in March 2020 as the tenor soloist in Haydn’s Stabat Mater with the English Baroque Choir, supported by the Josephine Baker Trust, but this concert was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID-19.

Sam graduated in 2019 with a BM in vocal performance from BYU where he studied with Darrell Babidge. In Summer 2021 he completed a postgrad degree in vocal performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied with Raymond Connell and Iain Ledingham. He is currently engaged as an 2022 Alvarez Young Artist with Garsington Opera.