Soloists

David Bates - conductor

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, David Bates initially embarked on a professional singing career before turning to directing/conducting. He founded La Nuova Musica in 2007, a vocal and instrumental ensemble dedicated to the music of the Baroque and Classical periods. Their most recent highlight was a semi-staged performance of Purcell Dido and Aeneas at the 2022 BBC Proms, described as “a superbly evocative night” in The Times and “a highly shaped, highly articulated performance, a musical tour de force that filled the hall” in Opera Today.

Highlights this season include his debut with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in the Netherlands; conducting Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at The Grange Festival with La Nuova Musica and returning to the Komische Oper Berlin for Handel Hercules. Looking ahead his plans include further titles at the Komische Oper Berlin and Opéra de Rouen Normandie and his debut at the Theater an der Wien. With LNM he will appear at the London Handel Festival, continuing their series started in 2015, of works by Handel where, so far, they have completed Acis and Galatea, Berenice, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Il Duello Amoroso, Apollo e Dafne, Orlando and Alcina; and a Mozart Concert Arias programme at Wigmore Hall with Lucy Crowe.

Last season he conducted Alcina at Staatsoper Hannover, made his debut with Opéra de Rouen Normandie with Handel Serse, and conducted a new production of Handel Saul at the Komische Oper Berlin.

Previous highlights include a new production by Damiano Michieletto in 2022 of Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice at the Komische Oper, a revival of the very successful production directed by Elisabeth Stöppler of Handel Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno for Staatsoper Hannover and Handel Alcina for Glyndebourne Festival with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Together with LNM, David has made award-winning recordings for Pentatone and Harmonia Mundi. Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice on Pentatone, featuring Iestyn Davies and Sophie Bevan, was shortlisted for a 2020 Gramophone Award, and their CDs for Harmonia Mundi received ‘Le choix de France Musique’ and Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’.