Countertenor Dominic Mattos is in his first year of postgraduate study with Jane Irwin at the Royal Northern College of Music, generously supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, and an entry award from the RNCM.

Prior to this Dominic studied privately with Tim Travers-Brown and spent three terms with the Morley College Opera School, singing varied repertoire from Gluck and Handel (Orfeo; Medoro) to Offenbach and Massenet (L’Opinion Publique; Le Prince Charmant).

At RNCM Dominic has been delighted to enjoy a relationship with Opera North through their chorus mentor programme, and to have been highly commended in the Bessie Cronshaw/Frost Brownson Song Cycle Prize. Dominic was also cast in RNCM’s 2021 spring opera as the Refugee in Dove’s Flight. Sadly, government restrictions prevented this production from taking place, but in March 2021 Dominic was delighted to sing the role in a concert presentation of selections from the opera, conducted by Peter Robinson.

Other recent engagements include the alto solos in Handel’s Dixit Dominus (Chandos Choir) and Purcell’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day (Morley Chamber Choir), Hercules in Handel’s The Choice of Hercules (Benslow Baroque Oratorio), and chorus in The Crane by Verity Lane at the Grimeborn Festival (world premiere).

Dominic has also performed in a number of concerts and recitals, highlights of which include a programme of baroque arias and duets with soprano Joana Fragata and pianist Nuno Lopes, at the Palacio Foz in Lisbon in July 2019.

He has participated in masterclasses with Della Jones, Michael Chance, Paul Farrington, David Gowland, Yvonne Howard and Elaine Kidd and attended courses led by Mary Plazas, Andrew Radley, Theresa Goble, John Ramster and Robin Bowman.

A recent convert to classical music Dominic had a prior career as a cabaret performer including appearances at the Aldeburgh Music Festival, the Metropolitan Room in New York, the Blackpool Grand, the Oxford Playhouse, the Jermyn Street Theatre, Stratford Playhouse, and the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. He was also featured on BBC Radio 4.

As well as singing Dominic is passionate about creating and staging opera and he is also creative producer of The Opera Makers, a dynamic collective who specialise in radical re-workings of well-known operas. They have received grants from ACE and the Fenton Arts Trust to present their first fully-staged production in 2021.