HIROSHI AMAKO
Tenor
“… sung with youthful glimmer by tenor Hiroshi Amako.”
British tenor Hiroshi Amako, a member of the Wiener Staatsoper ensemble, is widely acclaimed for the elegant beauty of his sound and a rare perfection in his diction in a wide range of languages. In the 2026/27 season, he appears in Vienna as Apollo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo under Stefan Gottfried and as Tamino in Geheimmission Zauberflöte, the Staatsoper’s new production for young audiences, among other roles.
In the 2025/26 season, Hiroshi Amako was heard at the Wiener Staatsoper as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail under Ivor Bolton, Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor under Roberto Abbado, Arbace in Idomeneo and the Steersman in Der fliegende Holländer, both under Bertrand de Billy, and Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos under Cornelius Meister. Further highlights of recent seasons include Ferdinand in Thomas Adès’ The Tempest under the baton of the composer, Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Narraboth in Salome, Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette, the Novice in Billy Budd, Alfred in Die Fledermaus and Pong in the new production of Turandot. He has collaborated with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Philippe Jordan, Simone Young, Kent Nagano, Thomas Adès, Ivor Bolton, Bertrand de Billy, Pablo Heras-Casado, Roberto Abbado and Michele Mariotti.
Hiroshi Amako is a much sought-after concert soloist and recitalist. In the 2025/26 season he appeared twice at London’s Wigmore Hall: as a tenor soloist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Dunedin Consort under John Butt, and with pianist Michael Pandya in a recital centred on Britten’s Holy Sonnets of John Donne, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. In April 2026 he performed Britten’s Canticles at NEST, the Wiener Staatsoper’s new venue. He has also given song recitals at the Oxford Lieder Festival and as part of the Royal Academy Song Circle. On the concert podium, he has performed with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. An experienced performer of baroque music, he has sung as a soloist alongside prominent specialists such as Rachel Podger, Ton Koopman, John Butt and Stephen Layton.
During his studies in London, Hiroshi sang the role of Bill in Jonathan Dove’s opera Flight, Pasquin in Bizet’s Le Docteur Miracle, the First Sailor in Dido and Aeneas and Damon in Acis and Galatea. From 2018 to 2020 he was a member of the International Opera Studio at Staatsoper Hamburg, singing Abdallo (Nabucco), the Lamplighter (Manon Lescaut), Borsa (Rigoletto), Le Comte de Lerme/Un Héraut (Don Carlos) and Sasha (Moscow, Cheryomushki) and creating the role of Goebbels in the world premiere of Johannes Harneit’s IchundIch.
Hiroshi Amako has won numerous competitions and awards. In 2021 he was the winner of the 3rd International Helmut Deutsch Lied Competition in Vienna. He was also a finalist in the 57th Tenor Viñas Contest and in the London Bach Society Bach Singer’s Prize.
Born in Tsu, Japan, Hiroshi Amako moved to North Wales at the age of eight. After reading Music at Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated with honours from the vocal master’s programme at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Ryland Davies and Iain Ledingham.
