Born in Liverpool, Harry Bicket studied at the Royal College of Music and the University of Oxford where he was Organ Scholar at Christ Church. He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and was awarded an OBE in the 2022 Queen’s birthday honours. Internationally renowned, especially for his interpretation of baroque and classical repertoire, in 2007 he was appointed Artistic Director of The English Concert, one of Europe’s finest period orchestras, with whom he has recently undertaken a project to record all of Handel’s works as an on-line resource for all.
He is Music Director of Santa Fe Opera where his titles since 2013 have included Don Giovanni, Orfeo, Pelleas et Melisande, Carmen, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Le nozze di Figaro, Fidelio, La Finta Giardiniera, Romeo et Juliette, Alcina, Candide and Cosi fan tutte, and in 2019 he conducted Strauss Vier letzte Lieder with Renée Fleming. He returns in Summer 2025 for Le nozze di Figaro.
Elsewhere in the 24/25 season, Harry makes his Opernhaus Zurich debut with Agripinna, and returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for a collaboration with Joffrey Ballet in a programme of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Haydn, Perkinson and Milhaud. With The English Concert he will lead a tour across Europe and the United States of Giulio Cesare, alongside their regular London series and Messiah’s in Madrid and Barcelona.
He is a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera where his recent productions have included Rodelinda, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, La clemenza di Tito, Giulio Cesare, Agrippina and Cosi fan tutte. His many titles at the Lyric Opera of Chicago include Carmen and Rinaldo. At the Canadian Opera Company he has conducted Le nozze di Figaro, Maometto II and Hercules and at Houston Grand Opera, Le nozze di Figaro and Rusalka. He is regularly invited to the North American symphony orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles 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, he made his debut at the Paris Opera in 2023/24 with Ariodante in a new production by Robert Carsen, returning the following season for Giulio Cesare. At the Bavarian State Opera, Munich, he has conducted Rinaldo, Ariodante, Serse, Orlando, Orfeo ed Euridice, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Die Zauberflöte. At the Liceu, Barcelona, he was awarded the Opera Critics Best Conductor Prize for Giulio Cesare, and has also appeared at Theater an der Wien (Iphigenie en Tauride, Mitridate) and Opera de Bordeaux (Alcina).
A regular favourite in the UK, he made his Glyndebourne Festival debut in 1996 in Peter Sellars’s landmark production of Theodora and has made numerous appearances with the English National Opera, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera, and Opera North where in 2023 he conducted David Pountney’s new Purcell work, Masque of Night. Harry’s Theodora at the Royal Opera House in 2022 was nominated for an Olivier Award for best new production. His vast orchestral experience includes repertoire from Bach to Britten with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio Frace, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic and the Tokyo Symphony.
He is a prolific recording artist and has made numerous recordings with The English Concert, most recently, Handel’s Rodelinda and La Resurezzione and Serse released in 2023 for Linn Records to great critical acclaim. His discography also includes five recordings with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, among them a collection of Handel opera arias with Renée Fleming (Decca) and Ian Bostridge (EMI), as well as selections from Handel’s Theodora, Serse, and the cantata La Lucrezia with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Avie), 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.
October 2024
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
