English National Opera (ENO) has today announced that its highly-acclaimed Music Director Edward Gardner will leave his role at the end of the 2014/15 season to take up his new appointment as Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He will be succeeded by Mark Wigglesworth, who takes up the ENO baton in September 2015.
John Berry, Artistic Director of ENO said:
“Ed Gardner has been a phenomenal Music Director, rightly winning plaudits across the board for the outstanding performances of our orchestra and chorus under his leadership. I’d like to thank him for his huge musical contribution to ENO and I look forward to working with him on a number of exciting company projects during 2014 and 2015. I wish Ed every success with his symphonic work and I’m delighted he’ll be back with us in 2016 as a guest conductor.
“It’s tremendous that I am also able to announce Ed’s successor today. Mark is one of the most outstanding conductors of his generation and I’m thrilled to be working with him. His appointment highlights ENO’s current standing in the international opera world and our ability to attract the very best talent from across the arts and the wider creative industries. He has already had great success with us in recent seasons, conducting acclaimed performances of Katya Kabanova and Parsifal, and his brilliant technique and natural flair for the theatre make him a natural choice to lead the Company.
“I know Mark will make his presence felt and will support our mission to make ENO one of the most theatrically dynamic and musically exciting opera houses in the world.”
Equally at home in the concert hall or opera house, internationally acclaimed conductor Mark Wigglesworth has worked with orchestras across the UK, Europe and North America, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra.
He and ENO are no strangers, with Mark having conducted Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (2001), Così fan tutte (2002 and 2003) Falstaff(2004), Katya Kabanova (2010), and Parsifal (2011, “confidently shaped…masterfully calculated”, The Telegraph) at the London Coliseum. Elsewhere, he has worked with Glyndebourne, Welsh National Opera, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, Sydney Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, New York and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he will be conducting again shortly before taking up his post at ENO.
Photo: Mark Wigglesworth by Sim Canetty-Clarke