One of the U.K.'s most technically gifted classical crossover talents, award-winning tenor Alfie Boe grew up in Blackpool, England, listening to his father's opera records, including performances by Richard Tauber and Puccini's La Boheme. As a young adult, Boe sang while he was painting and polishing cars in a local automobile factory; he was overheard by a client who suggested Boe should audition for London's D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Boe tried out for the company with Tauber's Dein Ist Mein Ganzes Herz and won a role in the chorus, touring and performing Gilbert & Sullivan works. When the tour finished, Boe won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, attended the National Opera Studio, and then joined the Royal Opera House's Villar Young Artists Program. He was participating in the program when director Baz Lurhmann discovered him and cast him as one of the leads in Lurhmann's Broadway production of La Boheme, for which Boe won a Tony Award. He signed to the Classic FM Presents label in 2006 and issued his debut album, Classic FM Presents Alfie Boe, that year; it peaked at number three on the U.K. classical chart. Late in 2006, Boe moved to EMI Classics and the following spring his second album, Onward, arrived. Boe explored his love of folk music with La Pasione, a collection of Italian folk songs that was released in 2007. Performances in Kismet, Richard Strauss' Elektra, La Traviata, and other operas ensured that his roots as a stage performer were well balanced with his recording career.