Laurence Cummings
conductor
© Robert Workman
Laurence Cummings is one of the most versatile conductors and cembalists in the world of early music. He is music director of the Academy of Ancient Music, London Handel Festival, and Orchestra Barroca Casa da Música in Porto, and rounded off ten years as Music Director of the International Handel Festival in Göttingen in 2020/21. Often praised for his thrilling performances, his career has taken him leading opera houses throughout Europe, including Zurich Opera (Belshazzar’s Feast, King Arthur), the Theater an der Wien (Saul), Gothenburg Opera (Orfeo ed Euridice, Giulio Cesare, Alcina and Idomeneo), the Théâtre du Châtelet (Saul) and Opera de Lyon (Messiah). He has worked with Barrie Kosky before, on Saul at the Glyndebourne Festival, where he also conducted Giulio Cesare and The Fairy Queen. He led Berenice und Alceste at Covent Garden and Radamisto, L’incoronatione di Poppea, Semele and The Indian Queen at English National Opera. He also enjoys a busy concert career, conducting all forms of music with orchestras including Hessen’s Radio Orchestra, the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston, the Croatian Baroque Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Musik Kollegium Winterthur, and the St Paul and Basel chamber orchestras. Many live recordings of operas and concerts were made during his time with the Handel Festival in Göttingen. His impressive discography includes recordings with artists including Emma Kirkby and Angelika Kirchschlager, live excerpts from operas, chamber music and solo cembalo albums. He was in charge of the department for historical performing skills at the Royal Academy of Music, where he currently holds the William Crotch Professorship, until 2012.