About
Tempos, balance and phrasing all convey the impression we are in the company of that rare beast, an instinctive Mozartian.”
OPERA
Ian Page is the founder, conductor and artistic director of The Mozartists, and has established an outstanding reputation as one of the world’s leading interpreters of the music of Mozart and his contemporaries. He is the founder and artistic director of The Mozartists (formerly Classical Opera), and is the creative driving force behind MOZART 250, a ground-breaking project which between 2015 and 2041 is exploring the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life, works and influences. His numerous recordings have attracted widespread international acclaim and include an ongoing complete cycle of the Mozart operas and a new ‘Sturm und Drang’ series. He began his musical education as a chorister at Westminster Abbey and subsequently studied English Literature at the University of York before completing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At the start of his career, he worked on the music staff at Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne, Opera Factory and Drottningholm, and his early mentors included Sir Charles Mackerras and Georg Tintner.
With The Mozartists, he has conducted most of Mozart’s operas, including the world premières of the ‘original’ version of Mitridate, re di Ponto and a new completion of Zaide. He has also conducted the UK premières of Gluck’s La clemenza di Tito, Telemann’s Orpheus, Jommelli’s Il Vologeso, Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe and Haydn’s ‘Applausus’ cantata, and the first new staging for 250 years of Johann Christian Bach’s Adriano in Siria. He made his Royal Opera House début conducting his own new performing edition of Thomas Arne’s Artaxerxes, and other engagements have included English Touring Opera’s 25th anniversary production of Le nozze di Figaro, the opening two concerts at the 2016 Eisenstadt Haydn Festival, and Handel’s Ariodante – with Ann Hallenberg in the title role – at the 2019 Drottningholm Festival in Sweden. He has also appeared at La Seine Musicale in Paris, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany and Bozar in Brussels.
Ian has attracted widespread praise for his dynamic and dramatic music-making, his intelligent and imaginative programming, his ability to connect with audiences and lead them on a voyage of discovery, and his commitment to nurturing and championing outstanding young singers and players. He was a coach for the International Opera School at London’s Royal College of Music for several years and has given masterclasses for the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, The Royal Scottish Conservatoire, The Drottningholm Festival and The Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. A passionate spokesman for classical music, opera and the arts, he has broadcast on BBC radio and television and Sky Arts, written several articles for The Guardian, The Independent, Gramophone and Opera Now, and given lectures for The British Library and Martin Randall Travel. His recordings include an ongoing complete cycle of the Mozart operas, ‘Mozart in London’, ‘The A-Z of Mozart Opera’, ‘Blessed Spirit – a Gluck retrospective’ and recital discs with soprano Sophie Bevan and tenor Allan Clayton.
Twitter
@IanPageMozart