Editing Toby Spence (section)

==Early life and studies==
Spence was born into a musical family that had once owned the London piano manufacturer Squire Pianos. His father was a doctor, and his mother a pianist who worked as an archivist at the [[Royal College of Music]].<ref>{{cite web | author=Neil Fisher | url=http://www.askonasholt.co.uk/x/assets/1052.pdf | title=Toby Spence on his role in Eugene Onegin | work=The Times | date=2011-11-15 | accessdate=2014-11-01}}</ref> She had also been personal assistant to [[Walter Legge]] and [[Yehudi Menuhin]], and artists and musicians were regular lunch guests at the family home. He was educated at [[Uppingham School]] and gained an honours degree in music at [[New College, Oxford]],<ref name="operamag">Pines R. People 395: Toby Spence. ''[[Opera (British magazine)|Opera]]'', November 2011, 1292–1300.</ref> where he was a choral scholar and his teachers included Edward Higginbottom.  He continued his vocal studies at the [[Guildhall School of Music and Drama]], where he studied with David Pollard with whom he has continued vocal studies.<ref>{{cite web | author=Ashutosh Khandekar | url=http://askonasholt.com/uploads/files/2013/10/17/Opera_Now_November_2013.pdf | title=The Road Ahead | work=Opera Now | date=November 2013 | accessdate=2014-11-01}}</ref> While still a student at Guildhall Spence appeared as Normanno in the [[Dorset Opera Festival|Dorset Opera]] ''[[Lucia di Lammermoor]]'' in [[Sherborne School|Sherborne]] in 1993.<ref>Forbes, Elizabeth. Opera on the Fringe - Lucia di Lammermoor: Dorset Opera at Sherborne School Hall, August 20. ''Opera'', October 1993, Vol.44 No.10, p1247.</ref>