Christopher Ward (conductor)

Christopher Ward (born 18 March 1980) is a British conductor. In August 2018 he became the music director of Theater Aachen.

Career
Born in 1980, Christopher Ward studied at Tonbridge School, Oxford University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. During this time, he worked with Oxford University Philharmonia and Chorus, Oxford Bach Choir and New Chamber Opera. In 2003, he was awarded the position of Répétiteur Fellow at Scottish Opera and the RSAMD, Glasgow.

In 2004, he spent a period working at the Internationales Opernstudio at Zürich Opera before moving to Germany in 2005 to work as Solorepetitor and Kapellmeister at Staatstheater Kassel. Working as music staff on a broad repertoire, he led several new productions, and conducted the Staatsorchester Kassel in a range of concerts as well as directing the theatre’s annual youth orchestra project (TJO). In 2006, he assisted Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in a production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the Aix-en-Provence Music Festival, and continued this association in Berlin and Salzburg (Easter Festival 2007).

Christopher Ward became Kapellmeister and Assistant to Kent Nagano at the Bavarian State Opera in 2009. He not only led new productions of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Haydn’s La fedeltá premiata and Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and world premieres of Eötvös’ Die Tragödie des Teufels, Ronchetti’s Narrenschiffe and Srnka`s Make No Noise (opening the International Munich Summer Opera Festival with Ensemble Modern), but also led concerts with the Bayerische Staatsorchester, and Orchesterakademie, and the Opera Studios of Munich and La Scala, Milan.

In 2014, he became 1. Kapellmeister at the Saarländisches Staatstheater. Here he conducted new productions of Weber’s Der Freischütz, Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, Rigoletto, and Nabucco, Dvořák’s Rusalka, Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and Daphnis et Chloé, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel, Rameau’s Platée, Obst's Solaris and Haas’ Bluthaus, as well as a number of revivals, ballets and symphonic concerts.

As guest conductor, Christopher Ward has directed performances at the Staatsoper Hamburg, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Komische Oper, Oper Graz, Salzburger Landestheater, Staatsoper Prag, National Theater Prag, Slovak National Theatre, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatstheater Mainz, Staatstheater Darmstadt and Theater Bremen, as well as conducting concerts among others with the Staatskapelle Halle, Bremer Philharmoniker, Staatsorchester Braunschweig and Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester.. He has also directed world premieres at Prague Spring International Music Festival and Bregenz Summer Festival, and in 2019 took over at short notice the world premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Babylon for an indisposed Daniel Barenboim at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin.

With labels Naxos and Capriccio, he has recorded a number of highly regarded CDs which have received several Opus Klassik nominations, collaborating with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra Köln, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and Sinfonieorchester Aachen.

Christopher Ward has been Generalmusikdirektor of Theater Aachen since 2018. Here he has pursued innovative programming ideas and developed the overall musical standards through numerous productions and concerts (including Berg's Wozzeck, Verdi's La Forza del Destino, Bizet's Carmen, Purcell's King Arthur and Puccini's La Bohème), appearing regularly with Sinfonieorchester Aachen at the Kölner Philharmonie and Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Alongside maintaining a focus on contemporary music, a baroque ensemble has also been developed from within the orchestra, playing solely on period instruments. Several recording projects have gained international attention, including world premiere recordings of the music of Leo Blech, and there remains an ongoing relationship with Deutschlandfunk Kultur and WDR. Christopher Ward has also appeared with the orchestra in two feature length films, including Fatih Akin’s box office hit Rheingold.