Roland Wood was born in Berkshire and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Patrick McGuigan and Robert Alderson, then at the National Opera Studio. He was the winner of the 1998 Webster Booth Prize and the 1999 Frederick Cox Award, and was also awarded Second Prize in the 2000 Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Awards.

Roland made his debut for Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2000 and has now sung major roles for all the major UK companies and overseas. Highlights include Ford (Verdi’s Falstaff) and Roucher (Giordano’s Andrea Chenier) for the Royal Opera; Count Almaviva (Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro), Paolo (Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra), Zurga (Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers), Bunyan/Pilgrim (Vaughan Williams’s The Pilgrim’s Progress) and Marcello (Puccini’s La bohème) for English National Opera; Golaud (Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande), Scarpia (Puccini’s Tosca), Count di Luna (Verdi’s Il Trovatore), Escamillo (Carmen) and Robert Storch (Richard Strauss’s Intermezzo) for Scottish Opera; Nick Shadow (Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress) for Glyndebourne Festival; Giorgio Germont (Verdi’s La Traviata) Opera North; Renato (Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera) and Nottingham (Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux) for Welsh National Opera; and Scarpia and Renato for Grange Park Opera.

Roland Wood has recorded extensively for both Chandos Records and Opera Rara and has also featured often on the concert platform, where highlights include Tippett’s Child of our time with the Hallé, Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ with the English Chamber Orchestra, Donizetti’s Il Diluvio Universale with the London Philharmonic and Bernstein’s Candide at the opening concert of the Edinburgh Festival.