User:Michael Paul Rosewell

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Michael Rosewell - Conductor

Michael Rosewell is currently Music Director for English Touring Opera, Britain's largest Arts Council supported opera touring company. Through highly acclaimed productions including Britten's A Midsummer Nights' Dream, Janacek's Jenufa and Katya Kabanova, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, he developed a successful artistic partnership with ETO General Director, James Conway and his conducting, which received accolades in the press for the style and theatricality of his interpretations and the excellence of the orchestral playing, resulted in his appointment as Music Director for ETO, in 2009. Both as conductor and as a major figure in the planning and casting decisions, he has played a central role in ETO securing the 2014 Olivier Award for 'Outstanding achievement in Opera'.

Michael began his career at the Vienna State Opera, as assistant to Claudio Abbado before going on to conduct extensively throughout Germany, notably in the opera houses of Kassel, Wiesbaden and Mannheim, where he held the position of Kapellmeister. He has worked closely with many of the greatest names from the world of opera including Pavarotti, Domingo, Gruberova, Freni, Carreras, Alfredo Kraus, and Cappuccilli, as well as eminent opera directors like Willy Decker, Graham Vick, Jonathan Miller, John Copley, Ian Judge, Jean-Claude Auvray and Sir Thomas Allen. His first work in the UK included some world premiere performances of Stephen Oliver’s Timon of Athens for English National Opera. Since then, he has conducted at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for Kent Opera, English Touring Opera, as well as at ENO. He has also appeared as guest conductor at the Aldeburgh, Bath, Perth, Buxton and Montepulciano Festivals.

Michael has received critical acclaim as an interpreter of Mozart's operas. Robert Thicknesse, reviewing Le Nozze di Figaro at Sadler's Wells Theatre said, “I am convinced that Michael Rosewell is one of Britain's best Mozartians” while Hugh Canning praised “...Michael Rosewell’s unfailingly Mozartian conducting and the beautiful playing of the orchestra. I don’t think the company’s musical standards have ever been higher”. Michael Kennedy, a recognised authority on Benjamin Britten, described Rosewell as “a superlative Britten interpreter” and his conducting of the Turn of the Screw at the Buxton Festival, as “intense, dramatic and as atmospheric as the composer’s in his historic recording”. Under the auspices of the Britten-Pears Foundation, he conducted the world premiere of Britten's ballet "Plymouth Town" and his conducting of Britten's 'The Rape of Lucretia' in Cincinnati, USA, won the 'American Opera Association's' top prize.

On the concert platform, Michael has conducted numerous European ensembles and orchestras including the Staatsorchester, Rheinische Philharmonie, the Nationalorchester, Mannheim, the Staatsorchester, Wiesbaden, the Orchestra of Scottish opera, the RTE Symphony orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the BT Scottish Ensemble and the Aurora Orchestra. He has also worked extensively with leading period instrument ensembles ‘The Old Street Band’ and the ‘London Handel Orchestra’ with whom, as Associate Conductor, he introduced many rarely performed Handel operas to the London stage. As pianist, he has toured with the Vienna Philharmonic and as harpsichordist, played for such eminent conductors as Niklaus Harnoncourt, Jean-Claude Malgloire and Marcello Panni. As conductor, he has broadcast for Radio France Musique, RTE Dublin, and Süddeutsche Rundfunk and conducted concerts at the Mayfield Festival with the London Mozart Players together with internationally renowned baritone, Sir Thomas Allen. His recording of Lehar arias, with Grammy award winning tenor Alfie Boe and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, was recently released under the Decca record label

At the age of 15, Michael won 2 major National prizes for his piano playing; the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music’s Gold Medal, and the Sheila Mossman Memorial Prize. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Music, London, studying Piano, Conducting, Doublebass and Treble Viol, where he was awarded a major scholarship and all of the most important prizes for conducting and piano accompaniment. Previously Director of Opera for the Royal Academy of Music, London, he was subsequently appointed Director of Opera for the Benjamin Britten International Opera School based at London's Britten Theatre. He is currently Director of Opera at the Royal College of Music where, under his stewardship, the reputation of this Opera School has flourished to the extent that it is generally regarded as one of Europe's leading opera training programs for young singers. He has had considerable success in showcasing and training high-calibre young singers, coaches and conductors through his work at the RCM, BBIOS, RAM and ETO.

Michael’s most recent projects include a revival of James Conway's critically acclaimed production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, directed by Jean-Claude Auvray, Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra with ETO, and Bach’s St John Passion, with the RTE orchestra, Dublin. He also mentored Craig Revel Horwood through to winning the BBC Maestro at the Opera, filmed in association with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and worked with Stephen Fry on his opera “A life to come”, composed by Louise Mander. Michael is currently conducting Tippett’s King Priam at the Royal Opera House, Linbury Theatre as the start of a National tour.