Richard Farnes (born 1964) is a British conductor, and was Music Director of Opera North from 2004 to 2016.
Farnes was a chorister at King's College, Cambridge before entering Eton College as a music scholar in 1977. He returned to King's as organ scholar in 1983 and subsequently studied at the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. [1]
During his professional career, he has conducted operas at the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, English Touring Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour, among other companies. He has also conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. [2]
Before joining Opera North in 2004, Farnes had conducted The Secret Marriage , The Marriage of Figaro , Joan of Arc , La Traviata , Eugene Onegin , Gloriana and Tosca for the company, as well as the world première of The Nightingale's to Blame by Simon Holt. [3] The operas he has conducted since becoming Music Director include La rondine , Salome , Falstaff , Macbeth , Katya Kabanova , the complete ring cycle and the award-winning Peter Grimes .
He relinquished his post with Opera North following the 2015-16 season. [4]
Sir John Eliot Gardiner is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000, performing Bach's church cantatas in liturgical order in churches all over Europe, and New York City, with the Monteverdi Choir, and recording them at the locations.
Sir Richard Armstrong is an English conductor. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar.
Sir John Michael Pritchard, was an English conductor. He was known for his interpretations of Mozart operas and for his support of contemporary music.
Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle. The company's orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, regularly performs and records in its own right. Operas are performed either in English translation or in the original language of the libretto, in the latter case usually with surtitles.
Sir Andrew Frank Davis was an English conductor. He was the long-time chief conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He was music director at the Glyndebourne Festival from 1988 to 2000, and especially known for conducting the traditional Last Night of The Proms, including Last Night speeches. He was music director and principal conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 2000 to the 2020/21 season.
Elgar Howarth, is an English conductor, composer and trumpeter.
Jonathan Dove is an English composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera, including in 1990 an 18-player two-evening adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for CBTO. He was Artistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival from 2001 to 2006.
Roy Goodman is an English conductor and violinist, specialising in the performance and direction of early music. He became internationally famous as the 12-year-old boy treble soloist in the March 1963 recording of Allegri's Miserere with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, under David Willcocks.
David Atherton is an English conductor and founder of the London Sinfonietta.
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Robin Blaze is a British countertenor.
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Matthew Rose is an English operatic bass.
Rory Macdonald is a Scottish conductor.
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Julian Gavin is an Australian-born British operatic tenor who has sung leading roles both in the United Kingdom and internationally. His full-length opera recordings include Don José in Carmen and the title roles in Ernani and Don Carlos for Chandos Records.
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Tecwyn Evans is a New Zealand conductor. He holds a faculty position teaching conducting at the University of Auckland School of Music and in 2018 he was named as Director of Music of Den Jyske Opera.
Peter Leslie Robinson is an English conductor, principally of opera. His repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary, with a special interest in Italian opera of the 19th and early 20th centuries. His appointments have included Resident Conductor of The Australian Opera, Assistant Music Director of English National Opera and Artistic Director of British Youth Opera.
Kerem Hasan is a British-Cypriot conductor. Winner of the 2017 Nestlé and Saltzburg Festival Young Conductors Award. From 2019 to 2023, Hasan served as the Chief Conductor of the Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck in Austria. Prior to that, he was appointed the Associate Conductor of the Welsh National Opera in 2017 at the age of 25.