New College is host not only to the annual Humanitas Visiting Professor of Voice & Classical Music but also to the University's statutory Visiting Chair in Opera Studies.
2019-2020
The 2019-2020 holder of the University’s Visiting Chair in Opera Studies is Laurence Cummings.
Laurence is an acclaimed conductor, harpsichordist and is the William Crotch Professor of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music; he has been Musical Director of the London Handel Festival since 1999. Laurence has conducted productions for English National Opera, Göteborg Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Garsington Opera.
Photo © Robert Workman
Events in Oxford
Laurence held 3 masterclasses on works by George Frideric Handel in February 2020 and November 2021.
2017-2018
The 2017-2018 holder of the University’s Visiting Chair in Opera Studies was Stephen Langridge.
Stephen is Artistic Director (Opera/Drama) of GöteborgsOperan, the Gothenburg Opera. As a director he has worked at Glyndebourne, Covent Garden, Rome, Chicago, Paris, and Salzburg. His opera productions include works by Monteverdi, Rameau and Handel through Mozart, Verdi and Wagner to many new commissions.
Podcast
Thursday 26th October 2017 Why play opera at all?
2016-2017
The 2016-2017 holder of the University’s Visiting Chair in Opera Studies is Katie Mitchell.
Katie has been an Associate Director at the RSC, National Theatre and The Royal Court Theatre. She was awarded an OBE in 2009 for services to Drama.
Photograph © Lucy Rybin
Podcasts
Friday 27th January 2017 'Woman. Alone: Directing Opera'.
Friday 21st April 2017 'Making a Contemporary Opera'
2015-2016
The 2015-2016 holder of the University's Visiting Chair in Opera Studies was Jane Glover.
Jane Glover is Director of Opera at the Royal Academy of Music, London and is Music Director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music.
Jane joined Glyndebourne in 1979, becoming Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera (1981-1985) and Artistic Director of the London Mozart Players (1984-1991). Jane has performed with all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, at the BBC Proms as well as with orchestras in Europe, the US, the Far East and Australasia.
2014-2015
The 2014-2015 holder of the University's Visiting Chair in Opera Studies was Graham Vick.
Graham Vick is the Artistic Director of the Birmingham Opera Company and works in the world’s major opera houses with the world’s leading conductors: Muti, Levine, Haitink, Gergiev, Runnicles Ozawa, Mehta.
He was Director of Productions at Scottish Opera (1984-1987) and at Glyndebourne (1994-2000). His many awards include Italy’s Premio Abbiati five times and Britain’s South Bank Show Award for Opera in both 1999 and 2002.
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