William Cole: March 3rd – 8th, 2020

William Cole made his U.S. debut conducting Philip Venables’ 4.48 Psychosis at the Prototype Festival in New York in January 2019. With a repertoire from Baroque opera to new work, other recent highlights include concert debuts with the Britten Sinfonia and Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen for Waterperry Opera Festival. Active in the opera house as well as the concert stage, recent and future engagements include projects with the Royal Opera Covent Garden, English National Opera, English Touring Opera and Operá National du Rhin. In the 2019/20 season he took part in Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s NEXT programme, and future plans include conducting Tom Coult’s Violet on tour with Music Theatre Wales and the London Sinfonietta, and assisting Thomas Adès at Tanglewood Music Festival. William studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was a Repetiteur Fellow and is now a visiting coach.

The Project:

William was in Bergen to observe working practices at the Borealis Festival, seeing rehearsals and performances by the Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner, and BIT20 Ensemble and Trond Madsen amongst others. This was arranged through the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s NEXT programme for young artists.

Photo: Helen Cooper