NAME:
Jonathan Fa’afetai Lemalu
BIRTHPLACE:
Dunedin, New Zealand
KNOWN FOR:
A Grammy Award winning bass baritone who has performed on a global stage. He is an opera singer, concert performer, recitalist and recording artist.
SHORT BIO / CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
1999 – Australia’s McDonald’s Operatic Aria Contest at the Sydney Opera House
2000 – Inaugural Llangollen International Singer 2000 Competition
RCM Graziella Sciutti Recital Prize
RCM Keith Faulkner Oratorio Prize
2000 – LASMO Staffa Singers Prize
Bruce Millar/Gulliver Award for Young Opera Singers (Glasgow)
Overall winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Competition (and Royal Over-Seas League Singers Prize, and Overseas Award)
Richard Tauber Prize for Singers (Wigmore Hall)
Concert FM Broadcasting Artist of the Year (NZ)
2000 – Recipient of the RCM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rosebowl (presented by HRH Prince Charles) and NFMS Alfreda Hodgson Prize
President Emerita Scholar, Leverhulme Trust Scholar, Tillet Trust Scholar and Singers Academy Scholar at the RCM
2002 – Won the prestigious Gramophone award for Best Debut Recording
2002 / 2003 – BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist
He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Otago before beginning postgraduate vocal studies at London’s Royal College of Music from 1999-2002 as a Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Scholar.
2008 – One of four artists selected to receive a $10,000 donation by Arts Foundation Award for Patronage recipients Gillian & Roderick Deane.
2009 – He featured on the album Britten: Billy Budd (engineered by Neil Hutchinson & Jonathan Stokes), which won Best Engineered Album, Classical, in the 2010 Grammy Awards.