Harpsichord Recital

Thursday 26th June, 7.45pm at St Michael's Church, Elmwood Road, Chiswick W4 3DZ

Tickets £12 Full-time education £6

Laurence Cummings is one of Britain's most exciting and versatile young exponents of historical performance both as harpsichord player and conductor. He was an organ scholar at Christ Church Oxford where he graduated with first class honours. In 1996 he was appointed Head of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, which has led to both baroque and classical orchestras forming part of the established curriculum. He is also Musical Director of the Tilford Bach Society in Surrey and a trustee of Handel House London. Since 1999 he has been Music Director of the London Handel Festival where performances have included productions of Deborah, Athalia, Esther, Agrippina, Sorsame, Alexander Balus, Hercules, Samson, Ezio, Riccardo Primo and Tolomeo.

Opera productions include L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Semele and Orfeo for English National Opera, Giulio Cesare for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Ariodante and Tolomeo for English Touring Opera, Rodelinda for Opera Theatre Company in the UK, Ireland and New York, Alceste at the Linbury Theatre Covent Garden as part of the London Bach Festival, Time Flows (based on music by Handel and Hendrix) for Streetwise Opera, Emilio de’ Caverlieri’s Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo, reputed to be the earliest surviving stage-work set to music throughout, John Eccles’s The Judgement of Paris and Henry Purcell’s King Arthur in Croatia, Francisco António de Almeida’s La Spinalba and La Guiditta at the Casa da Musica in Porto and L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Dardanus at the Royal Academy of Music. He recently made his US debut conducting Orfeo with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston.

As a continuo player he has worked regularly with Les Arts Florissants, The Gabrieli Consort, and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in addition to The Sixteen.  In addition he has worked with the conductors William Christie, Paul McCreesh and Harry Christophers, and has collaborated with Stage Directors Graham Vick, Peter Sellars, Annabelle Arden, James Conway and Robert Carsen.

His orchestral engagements include concerts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall, Irish Baroque Orchestra, and The Royal Academy of Music Baroque Orchestra (including B minor Mass at the London Bach Festival, and Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers at the Spitalfields Festival).

His numerous recordings include the first recording of Handel’s newly discovered Gloria, with Emma Kirkby and the Royal Academy of Music on BIS Records, and recital discs of solo harpsichord music (including music by Louis and Francois Couperin) for Naxos. He has recently completed a solo disc of Handel arias with Angelika Kirschlager for BIS.

Future plans include performances Vivaldi L’Incoronazione di Dario for Garsington Opera, and Giulio Cesare for Gothenburg Opera. He gives concerts at the Casa da Musica in Italy, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Lincoln Center New York, and with the English Concert.

The concert will be preceded by a reception for Members, Patrons and Supporters of the Festival.