The Lighthouse

Richard Baker is a leading figure on the British contemporary music scene as one of the foremost composer-conductors of his generation. He has relationships with many of the UK’s leading ensembles – London Sinfonietta, BCMG, Composers Ensemble and Apartment House.

He is a regular collaborator for the BBC Total Immersion days; for Karlsruhe in Spring 2013 he will conduct a new production of Gerald Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit.

Richard studied composition in the Netherlands with Louis Andriessen and in London with John Woolrich, and has a significant number of works to his credit including Learning to Fly, a basset clarinet concerto, Gaming and Written on a Train for voice and ensemble. He is currently writing a new work for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, for February 2013.

American stage director Ted Huffman has created opera and theatre productions throughout North America and Europe. New productions in 2012/13 include The Lighthouse (Maxwell Davies) for English Touring Opera, opening at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Les mamelles de Tirésias for the Aldeburgh Festival and the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, Threepenny Opera at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Vladimir Jurowski, A Soldier’s Tale for the Greenwich Music Festival, Der Kaiser von Atlantis for Central City Opera in collaboration with the Colorado Symphony, Hänsel und Gretel for Pittsburgh Opera, Carmen for Opera Birmingham, and Apprentice Scenes for Santa Fe Opera; Ted also joins the directing staff of the Metropolitan Opera during the 2011-12 season for the revival of Billy Budd.

Ted co-founded the Greenwich Music Festival in Connecticut; he continues to serve as the company’s Artistic Director. At the festival, Ted has created productions of Poulenc’s La voix humaine, Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and Henze’s El Cimarrón, for which he received a nomination for “Best Opera Direction 2010” in Opernwelt.

As a guest teacher and director, Ted has been engaged by many young artist development programs, including Canadian Opera Company’s Studio, LA Opera’s Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program, Pittsburgh Opera Studio and the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program.

Ted attended Choate Rosemary Hall and Yale University, where he majored in Humanities. He is also a graduate of San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program and the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme at the Aldeburgh Festival (UK). Ted apprenticed with director Robert Wilson at the Watermill Center.

Born
Birmingham

Training
Birmingham University
Slade UCL
National Film & Television school

Opera
Productions for Opera Holland Park, Almedia/ENO Opera Festival, Mid Wales Opera, Opera Theatre Company Dublin, Garden Opera, ETO, Pegasus Opera and Opera North

Future
A new Opera to coincide with the Beijing Olympics at Hackney Empire, a UK tour of the play The Dresser, a new play for the Drill Hall and a production of The Shape of Things in Istanbul.

Other
Neil has also worked for both set and costume departments for BBC TV.

Opera includes Promised End, The Duenna, The Magic Flute, Katya Kabanova, Don Giovanni, Anna Bolena, Susannah, The Seraglio, Eugene Onegin (all for ETO); The Cunning Little Vixen, (National Theatre Brno); The Ring Cycle, Tosca, Hansel & Gretel (Longborough Festival Opera).

Theatre includes Peter Pan, Be Near Me (NTS); Serenading Louie (Donmar Warehouse); Waste (Almeida); Othello (West End); Elektra (Young Vic); A Christmas Carol (Birmingham Rep); As You Like It, Bollywood Jane, Macbeth (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Kes (Liverpool Playhouse); Amadeus, Fen, Far Away, (Sheffield Theatres); Faith Healer (Bristol Old Vic).

Dance work includes pieces for Mark Bruce, Ben Wright, Rafael Bonachela, Shobana Jeyasingh, and Henri Oguike amongst others. Also Havana Rakatan for Sadlers Wells and Mischief for Theatre Rites. Musicals include The Witches of Eastwick, Aspects of Love (UK tours); Assassins (Sheffield Theatres); My Fair Lady (Singapore); City of Angels (Frankfurt).

Canadian tenor Adam Tunnicliffe studied at Christ Church, Oxford and at GSMD, and studies singing with David Jones and Cathy Pope. Recent roles include Alfredo/ La Traviata (Garden Opera); Quint/ Turn of the Screw (Oxford Opera Company). Adam performed in the first ever operatic performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, playing the Minister of the Admiralty in the world premiere of The Burial at Thebes by Dominique Le Gendre. Other roles include Fracasso/ La Finta Semplice (New Chamber Opera); Froh/ Das Rheinegold; Albert/ Albert Herring; Don Pelagio/ La Canterina. Previous appearances for ETO include Don Basilio/ The Marriage of Figaro; Oberon in Kate Pearson’s children’s opera, The Starry Welkin; Masquerader/ The Duenna; Captain/ Promised End (world premiere).

Sheffield born, Nicholas Merryweather studied modern languages at University College, London, before training at the Musikhochschule, Köln and on the opera course at GSMD. He was the winner of the Glyndebourne Wessex Award in 2008 and a semi-finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2009. Nicholas’s operatic roles include Don Giovanni/ Don Giovanni and Figaro/ Le Nozze di Figaro (Longborough Festival Opera); cover Morales/ Carmen (GOT); Papageno/ The Magic Flute (BYO); Starveling/ A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ETO). Recent concert engagements include Schubert Schwanengesang (Oxford Lieder Festival) and Carmina Burana (Plymouth Philharmonic Choir). He was the soloist on the World Premiere recording of Karl Jenkins’s Armed Man Mass for Peace.

Richard Mosley-Evans was born in Cardiff and trained at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. Awards include Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Sybil Tutton Opera Scholarship and twice winner of the Sir Geraint Evans Scholarship. Operatic roles include cover Gepetto/ The Adventure of Pinocchio (ON); Bosun/ Billy Budd, Doctor, Servant and Herald/ Macbeth, cover Father/ Hänsel und Gretel, Steuermann/ Tristan und Isolde (all for GFO); The Mayor/ Jenůfa (GTO); Le Dancaire/ Carmen, cover Don Alfonso/ Cosi fan tutte (both GFO and GTO); Sacristan/ Tosca (Raymond Gubbay at RAH). Recordings include DVD releases of Billy Budd, Tristan und Isolde, Gianni Schicchi for GFO, various TV/Radio broadcasts from Glyndebourne and at the Proms (RAH).