Ian Storey
scores and I bought one and inside was written the same name – I would love to have found out if it did actually belong to him.”
Initially, Ian was a reluctant protégé.“He said I should become an opera singer and when he started pushing me I told him I was really not interested. I didn’t have any formal education as a singer, I had a good quality of life in New Zealand, the cost of living was really low and I didn’t want to become a student again!”
Those words were to make their way back to Ian some years later: “When I made my debut at La Scala in 2004 as principle tenor in a Czech opera a friend of mine was walking down the street in Hamilton, New Zealand and he saw Guyon and told him I had just made my debut and he said: ‘He told me not to be so stupid!’ – I never really got to thank him...”
Looking back at the turning point in his career, Ian, now aged 56, muses about the importance of attempting new things, a life lesson he is keen to pass on to others. In 2008 he was awarded the Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by Loughborough University, in recognition of
his outstanding contribution to opera and it’s a thought he shared with students in his acceptance speech. “I told them, whatever you set out thinking you are going to do, don’t think that is what you are going to end up doing in the future – something else might come along and you have to have the courage to give it a try.”
It was similar advice which he himself was given by English long-distance runner Gordon Pirie.“He was an athletics coach and a friend of mine and I ended up having dinner with him and he said to me that a lot of individuals have it in them to be a world-beater at something but they never have the opportunity or think to try it. Many people go through life without trying something different.”
Prompted by his success with the choir in Hamilton, Ian began to study singing with Anthea Moller in New Zealand. He then returned to the UK, where, whilst he carried on teaching to make a living, he also continued to study singing, first with Bryan Drake and Laura Sarti in London. He later went on to study with Dante Mazzola in Milan and the famous Italian
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