Terry Wey was born into a Swiss-American family of musicians in Berne, Switzerland, experienced a rich musical education as leading soprano soloist of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and went on to study voice with Silvija Vojnic-Purchar, Kurt Equiluz, and Christine Schwarz at the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität, where he also studied as a concert pianist. After winning several competitions he started working almost immediately with leading Early Music ensembles such as Freiburger Barockorchester, The English Concert, Collegium 1704 or Kammerorchester Basel, under conductors such as William Christie, Thomas Hengelbrock, Marc Minkowski, Konrad Junghänel or Michael Hofstetter. He was invited to some of the most important venues and festivals, e.g. Musikverein Wien, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Wigmore Hall London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Lincoln Center New York, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Tonhalle Zürich or the Philharmonies of Köln and Essen. He has sung solo recitals at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, KKL Luzern and Styriarte Graz.
On opera stage, he performed in a variety of different roles such as Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the title role in Rinaldo, Ruggiero (Orlando Furioso) or Angel 1/The Boy in Benjamin’s Written on Skin at opera houses such as Teatro Real Madrid, Theater an der Wien, Staatsoper Stuttgart or Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris as well as the Handel Festivals in Halle, Karlsruhe and Göttingen.
His appearance in the main role of Händel’s Partenope alongside Christine Schäfer was highly acclaimed at the Theater an der Wien (Christophe Rousset/Pierre Audi, 2009), as were his debut at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival 2010 conducted by Riccardo Muti at Felsenreitschule Salzburg (Jommelli: Betulia liberata), his interpretation of Arsamenes in Stefan Herheim’s production of Handel’s Serse at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, as well as his debut under Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at the Styriarte festival 2014. In summer 2018 Terry Wey was the first countertenor ever to be invited to the Bayreuther Festspiele, for the world premiere of Klaus Lang’s Der verschwundene Hochzeiter.
Terry Wey’s special interest in renaissance polyphony led him to co-found the vocal ensemble Cinquecento, as well as working with leading vocal ensembles such as the Huelgas Ensemble, Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam or Weser- Renaissance. Apart from fifteen CDs with Cinquecento (hyperion), his discography includes complete recordings of Steffani’s Niobe (Erato), Albinoni’s Il nascimento dell’Aurora (oehms classics), Handel’s Israel in Egypt (Carus) and Faramondo (Virgin classics), Graun’s Iphigenia in Aulis (cpo) as well as two recordings of Bach’s B-Minor-Mass conducted by Marc Minkowski (naïve) and Václav Luks (Accent) and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with fellow countertenor Valer Sabadus (oehms classics). February 2017 has seen the release of his debut solo CD album Pace e guerra with Bach Consort Wien under Rubén Dubrovsky, by the label deutsche harmonia mundi.
