Based in the UK, Thomas Herford (tenor) began his musical life as a chorister at New College Oxford. He continued his education at Trinity College Cambridge and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He sings a variety of repertoire, and tours widely.
With Solomon's Knot, of which he is a core member, Thomas has evangelised both of Bach's great Passions and appeared in many other baroque masterpieces, always singing from memory and without a conductor. Solomon's Knot has a busy international touring schedule that takes Thomas to Europe's most important venues and festivals, regularly appearing at Wigmore Hall (where SK is the long-term Baroque Ensemble in Residence), BBC Proms, Snape Maltings, Halle Handel Festival, Bachfest Leipzig, Thüringer Bachwochen, Bach Academie Brugge and Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, among others. Thomas appears on all of Solomon's Knot's recordings to date, which include Bach Motets (recorded at the Bachkirche in Arnstadt), Magnificat - Christmas in Leipzig, and Lost Majesty (music by George Jeffreys), and on DVD as the Cortegiano in L’Ospedale. Upcoming releases include a recording of Bach's Mass in F, 'Hunting' Cantata and Brandenburg 1.
Solo work outside Solomon's Knot has included appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the English Baroque Soloists, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, La Nuova Musica and Academy of Ancient Music. His work in opera has focused on the roles of Handel, Mozart and Rossini, singing Acis Acis and Galatea, Don Narciso Il Turco in Italia, Don Ramiro La Cenerentola and Don Ottavio Don Giovanni among others. He has appeared with Garsington Opera, Opera North, Iford Opera and Bampton Classical Opera. With the Britten Sinfonia, Thomas performed in Britten’s Curlew River at the Lincoln Centre, alongside Ian Bostridge in the title role.
Also a busy ensemble singer, Thomas has been member of the Monteverdi Choir (dir. Sir John Eliot Gardiner) since 2016, taking part in numerous landmark projects, from a European tour of the St Matthew Passion in 2016 (recorded for SDG) and the choir’s debut tour to South America in 2019, to a series of ambitious semi-stagings of Berlioz’s grandest operas. Recent concerts include the B minor Mass at Carnegie Hall and Berlioz’s The Trojans at the Salzburg Festival. Thomas also has close relationships with numerous other leading ensembles, notably I Fagiolini (dir. Robert Hollingwoth), appearing on their albums Amuse Bouche and Missa Tu Es Petrus, and The Choir of St Bride's Fleet Street (dir. Robert Jones), of which he has been a proud member since 2008.
Thomas is married to the mezzo-soprano Katie Bray, with whom he has a bonny young son and a demanding but rewarding Springer Spaniel.
