Welsh counter-tenor Kieron-Connor Valentine made his Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut in 2024 jumping in at short notice to perform the role of Nireno in Giulio Cesare. He enjoys a close relationship with the Festival and returned this summer to cover David in Saul and will cover Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream this Autumn. Highlights of the 2025/2026 season include a return to Glyndebourne for Speranza and Pastore 3 in L’Orfeo, and his debut at Scottish Opera covering Dr Philipp Franz von Seibold in the world premiere of The Great Wave.
Highlights elsewhere have included his debut with English Touring Opera as Adalberto in Handel’s Ottone. Other work with English Touring Opera includes Andronico in Handel’s Tamerlano and Nireno and cover Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare. He covered the role of Farnace in Mozart’s Mitridate for Garsington Opera. Kieron-Connor previously joined the Britten-Pears Programme at Aldeburgh Festival in the role of Didymus in Theodora. He also features on the soundtrack for a new Welsh opera film, commissioned by Welsh National Opera and S4C and composed by Stephen McNeff, based on the life of World War I poet Hedd Wyn.
Concert highlights include a recital of Renaissance and Baroque songs at Cadogan Hall, as part of the London Master Class Series; a UK tour with the Military Wives; and his BBC Proms debut as The Lost Boy in the world premiere of The Water Diviner’s Tale, conducted by David Charles Abell.
He is a graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, having previously earned his Master of Music from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and his Bachelor of Music from the Royal Northern College of Music. Whilst at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama he performed the role of Fate in Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune and Orphée in Charpentier’s Orphée aux Enfers.
July 2025
