Harry Bicket is a conductor, the Artistic Director of The English Concert, and the Music Director of Santa Fe Opera. 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 was awarded an OBE in 2022. He is internationally renowned, especially for his interpretation of baroque and classical repertoire. In 2007, he was appointed Artistic Director of The English Concert. He became Music Director of Santa Fe Opera in 2013. Titles there 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. In 2019, he conducted Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with Renée Fleming.
He is a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera; 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. At Houston Grand Opera, Le nozze di Figaro and Rusalka. He is regularly invited to 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, 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 production of Theodora. He 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. His 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, La Resurezzione, and Serse released in 2023. 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.
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