Nicholas Carter (conductor)

Nicholas Carter is an Australian conductor. He is currently Chief Conductor and Co-Opera Director of Oper Bern, Switzerland.

Early life
Carter was born in Melbourne, Australia and began learning the violin and piano at school. Aged nine, he became member of the National Boys Choir of Australia, where he had his first exposure to orchestral music and opera, through involvement in concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia. Carter came under the mentorship of Richard Gill, one of Australia's leading music educators and conductors, and conducted his first opera production, Hans Krása's Brundibar for OzOpera in 2004. Following this and concurrent to his studies at the University of Melbourne, where he studied Piano and Voice, he continued to work with Gill in the newly formed Victorian Opera from 2006.

Career
In 2009, Carter was chosen by Vladimir Ashkenazy as his assistant conductor with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Holding this position for three seasons, Carter was introduced during this time to many conductors to whom he would later refer as significant mentors and supporters of his career, among them Sir Donald Runnicles and Simone Young. Young appointed Carter as Kapellmeister and Musical assistant at Hamburg State Opera from 2011, which saw him conduct The Magic Flute, Hänsel und Gretel, Lucia di Lammermoor, The Barber of Seville as well as assisting Young on a broad repertoire that including all ten Wagner operas. From 2014, Carter was appointed Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, working closely with Sir Donald Runnicles. His repertoire expanded, conducting productions of The Love for Three Oranges, La bohème, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, L'elisir d'amore and Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The relationship with the Deutsche Oper continued to develop over the ensuing years, and in 2024 he will lead the company in performances of Wagner's Ring Cycle. In 2016, parallel to his position as Kapellmeister in Berlin, Carter was appointed Principal Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first Australian conductor in 30 years to lead an Australian orchestra. September 2018 saw Carter become Chief Conductor of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and the Kärntner Symphonieorchester in Austria. His tenure saw him conduct highly-praised productions of Pelléas et Mélisande, Elektra, Tannhäuser, La clemenza di Tito, Rusalka and Cendrillon. Carter moved to Bern, Switzerland in 2021, to assume the role of Chief Conductor of Oper Bern. Amongst his achievements in Bern to date has been the ongoing production of a critically-acclaimed Ring Cycle, the first in the theater's history. Further to his titled positions, Carter has also appeared as guest conductor with many leading opera companies and orchestras, including, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Vienna Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Zürich Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Stuttgart and Santa Fe Opera. On the symphonic stage, Carter has conducted among others, the Rundfunk Symphonieorchester Berlin, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, as well as BBC Scottish and Welsh Symphony Orchestras, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and appears regularly with leading Australian orchestras.