Donald Maxwell was born in Perth, Scotland, and graduated in Geography from Edinburgh University. He appears regularly with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera and Opera North. He has also appeared at the Edinburgh, Wexford, Chester and Buxton festivals. Engagements abroad include Vancouver Opera, Buenos Aires, L’Opéra National de Paris-Bastille, the Vienna Staatsoper, Stuttgart, Venice, Wiesbaden, Brussels, Nancy, Tokyo and the Athens and Macau festivals.

Recent engagements have included Faninal for the Royal Opera, Don Alfonso for WNO, Balstrode (Peter Grimes) for La Scala, Geronio (Il turco in Italia) for ENO and Mountararat (Iolanthe) for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Subsequent engagements include Janacek for Scottish Opera and Belioz and Mozart for Welsh National Opera.