Dumfriesshire opera singer Nicky Spence has been awarded an OBE in the King’s first Birthday Honours list for services to music.
The Thornhill tenor and former Wallace Hall Academy pupil, who started his serious singing life with the Dalgarno Singers as an early teen, has gone on to become a much-loved classical singing sensation with a career that has taken him around the world.
He will attend an investiture ceremony to receive his Officer of the Order of the British Empire award in due course and said: “To be recognised in this way for doing a job I adore is the cherry on an already pretty juicy cake.
“Opera is such a team sport and I’m lucky to collaborate with remarkable people everyday through music but growing up without a bean, I’d love to dedicate this to the village of people who have aided my adventure to the opera stage.”
As well as his singing prowess, Nicky is also a noted force for good in the classical music world.
He is president elect for the Independent Society of Musicians, an official ambassador for charity Help Musicians UK and patron for the Scottish Opera Young Company. He is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and was a volunteer vaccinator during the pandemic.
Nicky has also helped raise thousands of pounds for charities helping struggling musicians, including SongCycle with a crew of nine colleagues on 2016.
They cycled more than 600 miles from the Scottish Opera headquarters in Glasgow to the London Coliseum, raising £17,000 in aid of Help Musicians UK.
Nicky, aged 39, now lives in south east London with his husband, American collaborative pianist Dylan Perez.
He added: “I’m encouraged to use this honour to further improve routes into the profession for singers from every background and hopefully inspire the next generation of undiscovered voices.”
He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and National Opera Studio in London and his occasional return home concerts, as part of the Absolute Classics season or on tour, are always hugely popular.
Last year, he was awarded BBC Music Magazine’s personality of the year award and won both their own and Gramophone Magazine’s Solo Vocal Award in 2020.
