Derek Hammond-Stroud, OBE (born 10 January 1926)[1] is an English opera singer best known for his performances of German lieder and opera.
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Hammond-Stroud studied with Elena Gerhardt and Gerhard Hüsch and performed numerous recitals in partnership with Gerald Moore, Geoffrey Parsons, Erik Werba and Felix de Nobel including performances at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Schubert-Saal in Vienna.
He is particularly known for performances as Alberich in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen and Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Operatic engagements have included Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, Munich State Opera, Theater an der Wien, the Netherlands Opera, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and Glyndebourne. For ten years he was a principal baritone with the English National Opera.
His concert and oratorio performances include appearances at the Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Windsor and English Bach Festivals. In 1986 he inaugurated the Malta Festival of Music with a performance of Schubert’s Die Winterreise song cycle. He appeared regularly at the BBC Promenade Concerts, and has sung in Spain, Iceland and Denmark.
Hammond-Stroud has recorded extensively in both opera and Lieder. He sang in the BBC television premieres of Sir William Walton's operas The Bear and Facade at the Royal Albert Hall, the Aeolian Hall and at the Edinburgh Festival. For the BBC, between 1966 and 1989, Hammond-Stroud also recorded his ENO and other Gilbert and Sullivan roles, including nearly the entire series of "patter" roles in 1989, as well as the roles of Reginald Bunthorne and Lord Chancellor in the 1982 Brent Walker videos of Patience and Iolanthe.
In 1976 Hammond-Stroud was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and in 1982 an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College of Music. He is the recipient of the Sir Charles Santley Memorial Gift and in 1987 was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).