John Tomlinson was born in Lancashire. He gained a BSc in Civil Engineering at Manchester University before winning a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College of Music. He was awarded a CBE in 1997 and knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2005.

John Tomlinson’s engagements include performances at La Scala, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Geneva, Lisbon, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin (Deutsche Oper and Deutsche Staatsoper), Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Bilbao and the Festivals of Bayreuth (where he sang for eighteen consecutive seasons), Orange, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, Edinburgh and the Maggio Musicale, Florence. He has sung regularly with English National Opera since 1974 and with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, since 1977 and has also appeared with all the other leading British opera companies. His repertoire includes Wotan Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Wanderer Siegfried, Hagen Götterdämmerung, Titurel and Gurnemanz Parsifal, King Marke Tristan und Isolde, Heinrich Lohengrin, Hans Sachs Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Landgraf Tannhäuser, Baron Ochs Der Rosenkavalier, Boromeo Palestrina, Orestes Elektra, Moses Moses und Aron, Green Knight in the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain, Claggart Billy Budd, Rocco Fidelio, King Philip and Grand Inquisitor Don Carlos, Sarastro Die Zauberflöte, Leporello and Commendatore Don Giovanni, Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr Miracle and Dapertutto Les contes d’Hoffmann, Golaud and Arkel Pelléas et Mélisande, Boris Timofeyevich Ismailov Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Pimen Boris Godunov, The General The Gambler and Thomas à Becket Assassinio Nella Cattedrale and title roles in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Boris Godunov, Oberto, Mose in Egitto, Der Fliegende Holländer, and the world premiere of Birtwistle’s The Minotaur.

John Tomlinson has a large concert repertoire and has sung with all the leading British orchestras and in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, Denmark and the U.S.A. He has made many recordings including Wotan, Wanderer, Hagen, Hans Sachs, Titurel, Don Alfonso Così Fan Tutte, Leporello, and title roles Le nozze di Figaro and Bluebeard’s Castle, Beethoven Choral Symphony, Messiah, Acis and Galatea and the Verdi Requiem.