Paul Frey

Paul Frey was born on a farm near Heidelberg, Ontario.

Although he sang in a church choir in St. Jacobs and in the Glad Tidings Quartet and for ten years with the Schneider Male Chorus in Kitchener, Frey did not seriously pursue a career in music until he was thirty-one years old.

In 1972 Frey left his father’s trucking business and studied music at the University of Toronto. He made his operatic debut in Toronto in 1976 in Massenet’s Werther.

Frey is a Heldentenor [German for heroic tenor] and has been especially identified with the title role in Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. He made his Bayreuth Festival debut in a new production of the work in 1987 and returned to the Festival to sing the role thirty-eight times over a seven year period, more than any other tenor to date.

Frey has performed on most of the big opera stages of the world including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden in London, and at La Scala in Milan. He has sung on all seven continents of the world.

In addition to Lohengrin, Frey’s repertoire includes the Wagner opera’s Der Fliegende Holländer, Die Meistersinger, Parsifal and the four opera’s of the Ring Cycle, the opera’s of Richard Strauss, Beethoven’s Fidelio, as well as many others.

Frey has also sung with many of the great orchestras of the world, including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as all the main Canadian orchestras.

Recording credits include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the direction of Sir Colin Davis (Philips Classic Label), Bacchus in Ariadne under Kurt Masur (Philips), Bacchus in Ariadne under Kurt Masur (Philips), Lohengrin with the Bayreuth Festival (Philips), Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and Mahler’s 8th Symphony on Denon.

Video’s of Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger are also available.

Frey has been generous in his support for charities. In 1994, he took part in a recording production of the Messiah with proceeds going to the Mennonite Central Committee. In 1998 and again in 2000, he performed as tenor soloist on two CD recordings, proceeds from the sale of these CDs going to those affected by landmines around the world.

He received an Honourary Doctor of Letters from Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in 2002.

Frey is married to the former Linda Horst of St. Jacobs and they have one son, Benjamin. He maintains homes in Switzerland and in Waterloo, and has a farm near St. Clements, Ontario.