Sir Simon Keenlyside CBE (born August 3, 1959) is a British baritone who has performed in operas and concerts since the mid-1980s.
Biography
Keenlyside was born in London to Raymond and Ann Keenlyside. Raymond played second violin in the Aeolian Quartet, and Ann's father was the violinist Leonard Hirsch. When Keenlyside was eight years old, he started attending St John's College School, a boarding school for boys who sang in the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge. He spent much of his childhood traveling and making recordings with the choir, which was led by choirmaster George Guest.
Later, he attended Reed's School in Cobham before studying zoology at the University of Cambridge. He returned to St John's College as a choir student before studying singing at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. After graduating, he won a Peter Moores Foundation scholarship in 1985 and joined the Royal Northern College of Music to study voice with the baritone John Cameron. There, he developed an interest in lieder, which are songs based on German poetry.
Keenlyside made his first major operatic performance in 1987 as Lescaut in Manon Lescaut at the Royal Northern College of Music. Opera magazine called his performance "astonishingly mature" and praised his "warm and clear baritone voice" and musical skill. In 1986, he won the Richard Tauber prize, which allowed him to study in Salzburg, Austria. However, he ran out of money before completing his four-month program. A teacher named Rudolf Knoll from the Salzburg Mozarteum gave him free private lessons. Knoll encouraged him to focus on Italian operas while he was young and introduced him to the Hilbert agency, which helped him get singing jobs in Germany. His professional debut as a baritone was in 1988 at the Hamburg State Opera, where he performed the role of Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro.
In 1989, Keenlyside joined the Scottish Opera, where he performed until 1994. He played roles such as Marcello in La bohème, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Billy Budd in Billy Budd, Papageno in The Magic Flute, and Belcore in L'elisir d'amore.
During this time, he performed at major opera houses, including the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden (singing the role of Silvio in 1989), the English National Opera, the Welsh National Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and opera houses in Geneva, Paris, and Sydney. He first performed at Glyndebourne in 1993 and made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1996. Keenlyside has performed at nearly all the world's major opera houses, including the Paris Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.
Keenlyside sang in the world premieres of two 21st-century operas. He created the role of Prospero in Thomas Adès' The Tempest in 2004 and the role of Winston Smith in Lorin Maazel's 1984 in 2005. He later participated in the EMI Classics recording of The Tempest.
In 2010, Keenlyside performed the role of Rodrigo in a new production of Don Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera, opposite Roberto Alagna, and received praise for his performance.
Keenlyside added the role of Golaud in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande to his repertoire in a new production that premiered at Wiener Staatsoper on June 18, 2017. He previously performed the role of Pelléas for many years. The same day, he was awarded the title of Kammersänger by the Austrian government in a ceremony at the opera house's Teesalon. In September 2025, he performed his first Falstaff in Verdi's opera at La Monnaie in Brussels. Critics praised his performance, noting his "resonant, rounded voice" and "natural authority" that brought warmth and depth to the character.
Keenlyside has recorded music for Hyperion Records, including works by Benjamin Britten, Emmanuel Chabrier, Maurice Duruflé, and Henry Purcell. He has also performed on five volumes of the Hyperion Franz Schubert Edition and on the second volume of the Hyperion Robert Schumann Edition. In 2007, Sony Music released a recital disc of arias titled Tales of Opera.
Keenlyside is married to Zenaida Yanowsky, a former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. They have two children: a son named Owen, born on October 12, 2008, and a daughter named Iona, born on March 7, 2010.