Australian tenor Iain Henderson is a widely sought after performer with a strong ringing sound and an energetic performance style. Currently a Principal Artist with Opera Australia, Iain made his Company début as Don Jose in Carmen for OA’s National Tour; he made his mainstage début as Pang in Turandot. His other roles for the national company have included Gastone in La Traviata, Wagner and Nereo in Mefistofele and Lord Cecil in Roberto Devereux.

For other companies, Iain has sung Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte (Quarantine Cosi), Vaudemont in Iolanta (Les Azurialies), Sellem in The Rake’s Progress (British Youth Opera), Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi (RNCM), The Witch in Hansel and Gretel (RNCM), Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Mayor Upfold in Albert Herring and Azaël in Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue (QCGU).

Winner of the 2016 Dame Joan Sutherland Award from the Noosa Federation of the Arts, he has also won the Joyce Campbell-Lloyd Scholarship, Ronald Dowd Memorial Prize and was a semi-finalist in the 2014 Australian Singing Competition. He was also a participant in the 2013 and 2014 Lisa Gasteen National Opera School, where he worked with John Fisher, Giovanni Reggioli, Richard Hetherington and Stuart Maunder.

Iain studied with Margaret Schindler at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and then at the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, UK) with Susan Roper and Peter Wilson. He was invited to undertake the RNCM’s highly coveted International Artist Diploma. While in the United Kingdom, Iain was part of the Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Chorus for three seasons; he was also a Young Artist with Buxton Festival in 2018.

In 2023, Ian Henderson sang Spalanzani in The Tales of Hoffmann for Opera Australia and covered Mime in their new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen. In 2024, he sings Normanno (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Cavaradossi (Tosca) for Opera Queensland and appears in Il trittico and Hamlet for Opera Australia.

AT THE FESTIVAL