Harry Bicket has been Artistic Director of The English Concert since 2007 and Music Director of Santa Fe Opera since 2013. Born in Liverpool, he studied at the Royal College of Music and the University of Oxford. He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and received an OBE in 2022. He is known internationally for his interpretations of baroque and classical music.
At Santa Fe Opera, he has conducted titles including Don Giovanni, Orfeo, Pelléas et Mélisande, Carmen, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Le nozze di Figaro, Fidelio, La Finta Giardiniera, Roméo et Juliette, Alcina, Candide, and Così fan tutte. In 2019, he conducted Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with Renée Fleming.
Harry regularly guest-conducts at the Metropolitan Opera. Recent productions there include Rodelinda, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, La clemenza di Tito, Giulio Cesare, Agrippina, and Così fan tutte. At the Lyric Opera of Chicago, he has led performances of Carmen and Rinaldo. His work at the Canadian Opera Company includes Le nozze di Figaro, Maometto II, and Hercules. At Houston Grand Opera, he conducted Le nozze di Figaro and Rusalka.
He is often invited to conduct major North American orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Orchestra of St Luke’s, Seattle Symphony, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, NACO Ottawa, Indianapolis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In Europe, Harry made his debut at the Paris Opera in 2023/24 with Ariodante, returning the following season for Giulio Cesare. At the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, he conducted Rinaldo, Ariodante, Serse, Orlando, Orfeo ed Euridice, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Die Zauberflöte. In Barcelona at the Liceu, he won the Opera Critics Best Conductor Prize for Giulio Cesare. He has also appeared at Theater an der Wien with Iphigenie en Tauride and Mitridate, and at the Opera de Bordeaux with Alcina.
Harry is a regular favourite in the UK. He made his Glyndebourne Festival debut in 1996 in Peter Sellars’s production of Theodora. He has appeared many times with English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, and Opera North, where he conducted David Pountney’s new Purcell work, Masque of Night, in 2023. His 2022 production of Theodora at the Royal Opera House earned an Olivier Award nomination.
His orchestral work spans music from Bach to Britten with ensembles such as the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and Tokyo Symphony.
He is a prolific recording artist and has made many recordings with The English Concert. Recent releases in 2023 include Handel’s Rodelinda, La Resurrezione, and Serse. His discography also features five recordings with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, including collections of Handel opera arias with Renée Fleming (Decca) and Ian Bostridge (EMI). He also recorded selections from Handel’s Theodora, Serse, and the cantata La Lucrezia with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Avie), which was nominated for a Grammy Award. His solo recordings with David Daniels for Virgin Veritas and Susan Graham for Erato were both nominated for Gramophone Awards.
For the most up-to-date biography, please contact Askonas Holt.
