Agustín Prunell-Friend

The Tenerife-born tenor, residing in London, is one of the most outstanding Spanish singers in the Baroque-Classical and concerto repertoire. He studied at the Conservatory of Tenerife with Isabel García Soto, and finished his music studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

He has performed at the Royal Theatre in Madrid, La Fenice in Venice, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Opera di Roma and the New Zealand Opera; his repertoire is strongly inclined toward G. Rossini, but also includes G.F. Handel, W.A. Mozart and, in particular, B. Britten. He collaborates with the best Spanish orchestras and conductors, in addition to the Rundfunkorchester Berlin, the Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester, the Dresdner Philharmoniker, the Orchestra Nazionale della rai, the Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, the Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Esa Pekka-Salonen, Gunter Herbig, Enrique Bátiz and Alberto Zedda.

His vocation and his vocal instrument have led him to increasingly move toward the Baroque repertoire. He has sung J.S. Bach's Evangelists with Frans Brüggen, Handel's Messiah with Alan Curtis, Handel's Jephtha with the Akademie für Alte Musik and the Collegium Gent, J.-B. Lully with J.-C. Malgoire and La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roi, H. Purcell for the English Bach Festival, C. Monteverdi with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants and F. Cavalli with Andrea Marcon and the Venice Chamber Orchestra.

His most recent and upcoming projects include the inaugural gala of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and E. Pekka-Salonen at the Walt Disney Hall. He has been invited to sing Britten's War Requiem with Lorin Maazel and M. de Falla's El retablo de Maese Pedro with Charles Dutoit and the San Francisco Symphony, Monteverdi's Orfeo with Les Arts Florissants at the Royal Theatre in Madrid and the Salle Pleyel in Paris, Carmina Burana with P. McCreesh, H. Berlioz's Requiem with R. Frühbeck de Burgos in Dresden, Bach's Mattheuspassion and Weihnachtsoratorium with Juanjo Mena, Britten's War Requiem and Illuminations in Turin and Oslo, and The Turn of the Screw and The Rape of Lucretia in London, Britten's Nocturne with Lionel Bringuier, L. van Beethoven's Fidelio in Seville, Las Palmas and Santander, Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ with Pablo González in Granada and F. Testi's Saul in a new production by P. L. Pizzi at the Sferisterio of Macerata Festival and the Opera di Roma. On 9 February 2009, he inaugurated the cycle dedicated to I. Albéniz at the Royal Theatre with a lied recital, together with pianist Graham Johnson. In November 2009, he will participate, with El Concierto Español and Emilio Moreno, in the first historically informed performance of Antonio Caldara's Il più bel nome, with a world premiere recording for the label Glossa.

With Lü Jia, he has sung B. Maderna's Venetian Journal for tenor and orchestra in the concert commemorating the death of G. Sinopoli at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, in Rome.

He has recorded for Naxos, Harmonia Mundi, RTVE, Kicco Classics and Dynamic, and has received the Music Award from the Casino of Tenerife.