Jacques le Roux is a South African tenor, concert and opera singer.
Life and person
Born in South Africa in Colenzo-Ladysmith in the then province of Natal, Jacques le Roux discovered his passion for music at an early age. His mother, an organist in the local church, took his early music education upon herself and gave him his first music lessons. Pursuing a better life, the family relocated to Vereeniging, a city in Tranvaal now known as Gauteng, where Jacques le Roux at the age of 14 started studying piano and clarinet at the local gymnasium conservatory. It was during these years that he discovered his singing talent. This finally lead him to further his music studies at the Conservatorium of the North-West University in Potchefstroom, where he studied voice under Prof. Werner Nel. In 2006 the singer went abroad to the Netherlands and Germany in pursuing an international opera career. He now resides in Austria.
Career
As a student in his native South Africa, Jacques le Roux already sung many student opera productions and won popularity for his charismatic acting talent, the beauty of his voice and his authenticity on stage. This led to him winning various competitions, prizes and scholarships, such as the UNISA Voice Competition and the ATKV Music Competition. He was also nominated as a finalist in the Belvedere singing competition in Vienna, Austria. In 2006 le Roux was part of the Resident Artist Program of the Nationale Reisopera in Enschede, the Netherlands, where he sang the role of Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio, an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The following year 2007 marked his European stage debut. His success in the role of Don Ramiro in G. Rossini's La Cenerentola, at the , guaranteed him new engagements and further productions in Europe. In 2007 he became part of the , and in the following years 2008 and 2009 Le Roux sang as youngest member of the ensemble at the . After working as a concert and opera singer in South Africa, the Netherlands, France, the Czech Republic, Russia, Norway, Poland, Jacques le Roux finally relocated permanently to Austria. Since 2010/2011 he is part of the fixed opera ensemble of the , Austria. In 2013, he played a key role in the opening of the new opera house in Linz where he sang the leading male role in the world premiere of the Philip Glass opera The Lost. He has sung the leading male roles in world and European premieres of composers such as Ernst Ludwig Leiter, William Bolcom, Moritz Eggert and Helmut Schmidinger.
Awards
Jacques le Roux won in 2010 the „Ulrich-Burkhardt-Förderpreis“ of the South Thuringia State Theatre Meiningen, which declared him as the artist of the year 2010. 2016 he was nominated for the Austrian Music Theatre Price for his interpretation of Peter Quint in Benjamin Britten’s “Turn of the Screw”. After his recording of Bellini's Canzone di Camara, the southGerman newspaper stated that Jacques le Roux is a musical event of world ranking.
