Alan Oke studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in Glasgow and with Hans Hotter in Munich.
Following a successful career as a baritone he made his debut as a tenor in 1992. Since then his career has covered much of the tenor repertoire, including Rodolfo La bohème, Alfredo La traviata, Pinkerton Madama Butterfly, Steva Jenufa, Boris Katya Kabanova, M.K. Gandhi Satyagraha, The Four Servants Les contes d'Hoffmann, Schoolteacher The Cunning Little Vixen and Don Basilio Le nozze di Figaro. Companies include Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Scottish Opera; Opera North; The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; English National Opera; Canadian Opera Company and The Metropolitan Opera as well as appearances at the Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Brighton, Bregenz and Ravenna Festivals and the BBC Proms.
Concert repertoire includes Beethoven Missa Solemnis and Choral Symphony, Mendelssohn Elijah, Bach B minor Mass, Janacek Glagolitic Mass, Britten Spring Symphony, Britten War Requiem, Britten On This Island, Henze Voices, Elgar Dream of Gerontius, Stravinsky Threni and Schoenberg Gurrelieder. He performed Britten’s Spring Symphony at the BBC Proms and War Requiem with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and Sellem The Rake’s Progress for the Edinburgh International Festival under Sir Andrew Davis.
Alan has established an enviable reputation in twentieth century and contemporary repertoire, including Chairman Mao Nixon in China for the BBC Proms and the Berlin Festival; Caliban The Tempest for the Metropolitan Opera, New York in a new production conducted by Thomas Adès; he created the role of Marlow in Tarik O’Regan’s Heart of Darkness at the Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and has also sung Hiereus/the Translator The Minotaur and Old Man Marshall in Turnage's Anna Nicole for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Prince/Manservant/Marquis Lulu for Welsh National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. He sang his first Peter Grimes to great acclaim for the Aldeburgh Festival as part of their Britten centenary season, adding to his already celebrated Aschenbach Death in Venice, which he has sung at the Aldeburgh and Bregenz Festivals as well as for Prague State Opera. Last season he sang Le nozze di Figaro and Figaro Gets Divorced (world premiere) for Welsh National Opera. He returned to the Aldeburgh Festival with Opera North for a concert version of Billy Budd.
Janacek’s From the House of the Dead with Welsh National Opera, Figaro Gets a Divorce at Poznań Opera House and Grand Théâtre de Genève, The Rake's Progress with the Dutch National Opera, the world premiere of David Sawer's The Skating Rink for Garsington Opera, a return to the Royal Opera House for Das Rheingold, concerts with the New York Philharmonic and Vere Billy Budd in Poland.