John Mark Ainsley

John Mark Ainsley, born in Crewe on 9 July 1963, is a British tenor whose career combines opera, oratorio and chamber repertoire. He studied music at the University of Oxford and with the teacher Diane Forlano. His first collaborations were with the group Gothic Voices and other similar ensembles.

His operatic debut came in 1988, in a work by Scarlatti, Gli equivoci nel sembiante, at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music. He later sang with English National Opera, where he made his debut in 1989 in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and with Welsh National Opera, in the role of Idamantes. He also performed with Scottish Opera and at the Aix-en-Provence and Glyndebourne festivals. In 1990 he made his American debut with concerts in Boston and New York, and in 1995 he debuted in San Francisco as Don Ottavio, a role he recorded under Norrington's direction. A year later he appeared at the Dutch National Opera as Monteverdi's Orfeo.

His voice, described as a flexible lyric tenor in the English tradition, is reflected in a wide-ranging discography that extends from Monteverdi to Britten. His recordings include Britten's Serenade, lieder by Mozart and Schubert, songs by Quilter, Warlock and Howells, several Handel oratorios and the title role in Orfeo. In 1992 he premiered the tenor part in John Tavener's We shall see Him as He is.