Tenor Nathan Payas (b.1979 in Gibraltar) studied at the University of Hull in England, at Indiana University in the USA and finally in Vienna, Austria, at the University for Performing Arts. He has attended summer courses in the States and in Italy. His voice teachers include Virginia Zeani and Carlo Bergonzi and he has also received master classes form Martina Arroyo, Maria Chiara and Licia Albanese.

Payas has performed numerous operatic roles including Il Duca (Rigoletto), Alfredo (La Traviata), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and Ferrando (Cosi fan tutte). He has appeared with Evansville Opera, Opera Tampa, Kammeroper Graz and the International Center for Performing Arts in New York. In Vienna he has performed at the Pleyel Instittue, the prestigious Konzerthaus and the Schonbrunn Palace Theatre. Payas has worked with Tito Capobianco, Anton Coppola and Maurizio Arena among other important operatic figures. Other roles currently in his repertoire include Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Ernesto (Don Pasquale) and Nemorino (L’Elisir D’amore).

Summer 2006 saw Payas at the 34th International Istanbul Music Festival singing the role of Tito in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. 2007 he performed Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, a New Years Concert with the Philharmonic Orchestra Györ to commemorate Pleyel’s 250th anniversary and also performed at the Verdi