Peter studied at the International Opera School of the Royal College of Music and Operastudio Vlaanderen, Ghent. He was born in Manchester and graduated with a First Class degree in Fine Art & Philosophy from Newcastle University. He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Music (DMus) honoris causa of Newcastle University in July 2023.
Highlights of the 2024/25 season include The Time of Our Singing at La Monnaie, Brussels, The Little Lives at New Opera Days Ostrava, and the world premiere of Festen by Mark-Anthony Turnage, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He will be a resident Distinguished Visitor at the University of Oxford.
Recent roles include returns to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to co-create and perform in Insurrection: A Work in Progress, and to reprise the role of Narrator in the Little Bulb's Olivier Award-winning Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, which will be broadcast in cinemas from October 2024. He made his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris as Stubb in Olga Neuwirth’s The Outcast with Ensemble intercontemporain/Matthias Pintscher/Netia Jones, and sang Melot in a new Tiago Rodrigues production of Tristan und Isolde conducted by Leo Hussain at Opéra national de Lorraine and Théâtre de Caen.
In addition to appearances at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham Festivals, the V&A Museum, Historic Royal Palaces, and the British Library, he sang recitals across the UK, including Britten’s song cycle Tit for Tat with Malcolm Martineau at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh.
At the University of Oxford, he became visiting artist developing a performance project with the Humanities Cultural Programme/TORCH and the Bodleian Centre for the Study of the Book, and a Fellow Commoner at The Queen's College. In 2024 he joined the Church of England’s Contested Heritage Committee.
Peter has performed leading roles across Europe for companies including, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, the Munich Biennale, Nederlandse Reisopera, Opéra National de Lyon, and Danish National Opera, with performances at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Philharmonie Luxembourg. Within the UK, Peter has sung for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Opera North, English Touring Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour. Further details about Peter’s opera work can be found in Opera.
To bring attention to lesser-known works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime, Peter created the multimedia recital Degenerate Music: Music Banned by the Nazis (London Song Festival/Studio Niculescu Berlin) which was later developed into Effigies of Wickedness: Songs banned by the Nazis (English National Opera/Gate Theatre).
His pioneering Rediscovering Black Portraiture series, made during the Covid-19 pandemic, reimagines historical depictions of Black subjects with the help of domestic material culture. Pieces from this project have been exhibited at Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, The Higgins Museum Bedford, Kensington Palace Historic Royal Palaces London, King’s College London/Wellcome Trust, Museum Hof van Busleyden Belgium, National Portrait Gallery London, and Toledo Museum of Art Ohio. His book on the series was published by Getty in Spring 2023. Further details about Peter’s series can be found in Rediscovering Black Portraiture.
Peter has written for The Guardian and The Independent. A BBC Radio 3 Next Generation Voice, he authors and presents Discovering Black Portraiture and In Their Voices, and presents features for Essential Classics and Inside Music. His documentary Rebel Sounds: Musical Resistance in Barbados is available on BBC Sounds. He is currently writing a family history of Barbados for Chatto & Windus due to be published in 2026/27. Further details about Peter’s broadcasting and writing work can be found in Broadcasting & Writing.
His awards include Peter Moores Foundation Major Award, Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells Fellowship, The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Award, Winston Churchill Fellowship, and International Opera Awards Foundation Bursary. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. He is a Trustee of Leeds Lieder, Second Movement Opera and CHROMA. He has been shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.