Ivor Bolton is Chief Conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, with whom he appears annually at the Salzburg Festival, and on tour (including the 2006 BBC Proms in London), and with whom he has already built up an extensive discography including a critically successful series of Bruckner Symphony recordings. In the UK he has been Music Director of English Touring Opera, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and Chief Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He enjoys a close relationship with the Bavarian State Opera where, since 1994, he has conducted a wide range of new productions, most notably of Monteverdi, Handel and Mozart. He has been awarded the prestigious Bayerische Theaterpreis for his outstanding work in Munich. He has been a regular guest at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Opéra National de Paris and other operatic engagements have included Covent Garden, ENO, Bologna, Brussels, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Sydney, Berlin, Hamburg and Geneva. Orchestral engagements have included the Proms, Lincoln Center New York, Zürich Tonhalle-Orchester, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, Orchestre de Paris, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Wiener Symphoniker, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. His many recordings, apart from those with the Mozarteum Orchestra, include Monteverdi’s Poppea and Handel’s Xerxes and Ariodante with the Bavarian State Opera.
His recent performances have included Mozart’s Overtüre aus “The Marriage of Figaro” at the Philharmonie of Cologne, with the Concert Concerto Cologne for their 25th Anniversary and a United Kingdom wide tour with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. Ivor Bolton will also be conducting Britten’s Billy Budd at De Nederlandse Opera, and Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Vienna State Opera.
Like so many conductors today, Ivor Bolton has established a parallel career as a soloist, in his case as a harpsichordist. On the podium, he is better known in the opera house, particularly for his incisive interpretations of Baroque operas by Handel, Purcell, and others, as well as for his Mozart (Le nozze di Figaro; Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Bellini (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), and Rossini. His orchestral repertory, though also divulging a bias for early music, extends into the Romantic and modern periods, encompassing works by Mendelssohn, Brahms, Franz Berwald, Bruckner, Malcolm Arnold, and James MacMillan. As a harpsichordist, Bolton has garnered acclaim particularly for his performances (and recording) of harpsichord concertos by J.S. Bach. Bolton has amassed a sizable discography spread over several labels, including DG, RCA, ASV, Teldec, Oehms, Farao Records, RPO (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), and others.
Ivor Bolton was born in Blackrod (Lancashire), England. He studied music at Cambridge University (Clare College) and at the Royal College of Music in London. After graduation he added a further year of study, this at the National Opera Studio, also in London. During that year he earned his first important post, conductor of the chamber choir Schola Cantorum of Oxford (University).