Denis Lakey, countertenor, was born in Cape Town but brought up from the age of two in London. He is a British citizen and has lived in Germany since 1992. He studied singing at the Royal College of Music in London with Keith Davis and Robert Sutherland and furthered his studies in the Opera School at the RCM. He continued his studies privately with David Mason in London and now works with Renate Faltin in Berlin.
His unusual and extensive operatic repertoire ranges from Baroque to Romantic including Viennese operetta and twentieth century and contemporary stage works. Roles he has sung include Nerone L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Basilio Don Quichotte (Telemann), the Handel roles Giulio Cesare Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Ottone Ottone, rè di Germania, Andronico Tamerlano, Medoro Orlando, also the First Witch Dido & Aeneas, Prinz Orlofsky Die Fledermaus, Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel, Oberon Midsummer Night's Dream, The Voice of Apollo Death in Venice, Teufel Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung (Jest, Satire, Irony and Deeper Meaning – Detlev Glanert, Libretto by Jörg W. Gronius).
Denis Lakey has created roles in several world premieres: The Gross Client Metamorphoses (Richard Blackford), The High Priest The Fisherman (Paul Max Edlin), Papst Innozenz III Der Kinderkreuzzug (Stefan Hakenberg), Referent/Priester/Coco Cuba Libre (Cong Su), Der Geräderte WUT (Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini). He won great recognition as Truth in the Channel Four television opera The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit (Gerald Barry) - CD available from Largo Records, Cologne.
He has appeared in many theatres in Germany including Theater Ulm, Volkstheater Rostock, Theater Erfurt, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Theater Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, Markrgräfliches Opernhaus Bayreuth, Schloßtheater Potsdam as well as in the International Opera Festival London, the Chamber Opera in Budapest and in Rome, Brescia, Modena, Argentina (Festival de Ushuaia and Museo Fernandez Blanco Buenos Aires) and Bolivia
(Misiones de Chiquitos Festival).
Denis Lakey has worked with several well-known ensembles, conductors and directors, among them The Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, The Lautten Compagney Berlin, Musica Fiorita, Basel, The European Music Project, Philip Pickett, Thomas Hengelbrock, Wolfgang Katschner, Daniela Dolci, James Lockhart, Diego Masson, Giancarlo del Monaco and John Dew.
On the concert platform he has performed in major choral and vocal works as soloist with many choirs and orchestras: Handel's Messiah, Bach's Johannes-Passion, Magnificat, Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Giacinto Scelsi's Khoom. He has appeared on the South Bank London, in the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts Munich, in the Stadthaus Ulm and in the Liederhalle Stuttgart.
In September 2007 he sang the world premiere of works commissioned by the Arno Schmidt Foundation in the in the broadcasting hall of Radio Bremen. A CD of these compositions by Eckart Beinke, Thomas Desi, Matthias Kaul, Robert HP Platz und Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini is due for release in 2008 under the CPO label.
