Ivor Bolton: Teatro Real Music Director (2015/16 -2019/20)‏

(Madrid, 10th February 2014) — During an ordinary meeting held today, and following a proposal from the General Director and the Artistic Director of the Teatro Real, the Board of the Teatro Real has appointed Ivor Bolton as the new Music Director for a period of 5 years. This decision comes after a thorough assessment of applications from outstanding professionals. The Board of Directors has acknowledged the great artistic qualities and international projection of Ivor Bolton. He will take his new position as Music Director in the 2015/2016 season. Ivor Bolton (Blackrod, 1958) studied at Cambridge University (Clare College), Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio London. While still a student at the latter he was invited to become Chorus-Master of the Glyndebourne Festival where he assisted Bernard Haitink and Simon Rattle. He proceeded to conduct several times in the Glyndebourne Festival and become Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. Ivor Bolton has enjoyed a close relationship with the München Bayerische Staatsoper where, since his debut in 1994, he has conducted seventeen new productions to date including a Monteverdi cycle and a hugely successful series of operas by Händel and was awarded the prestigious Bayerische Theaterpreis. He made his debut at London’s Covent Garden in 1995 with the world-premiere of Alexander Goehr's Arianna and returns frequently to conduct there. At the invitation of Gerard Mortier he made his Salzburg Festival debut in 2000 with Iphigénie en Tauride and was immediately invited to become Music Director of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, a post he still holds. He has returned to the Salzburg Festival each year, conducting a wide range of operas by Mozart, Haydn, Bellini, Tchaikovsky, Gluck, Stravinsky and Händel. He has worked in most of the major European opera houses, appearing often at the Opéra National de Paris, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Nederlandse Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, Wiener Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, the Semperoper Dresden, Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, Theater an der Wien, Hamburg State Opera as well as returning to Glyndebourne Festival and the Royal Opera House of London, with guest appearances in Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Sidney Opera and San Francisco Opera.  Bolton is active in the concert field and in recordings. He has worked with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Münchner Philharmoniker, Freiburger Barockorchester and particularly with his Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg with whom he has often toured Japan and also the USA, China, Germany and the UK. They are nearing completion of a critically acclaimed series of recordings of the complete symphonies of Bruckner and have recently performed Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony at the Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg. He has had a career as a solo harpsichordist and has recorded the complete harpsichord concertos of J. S. Bach. At the Teatro Real he has led productions of Leonore and Jenufa, and he will be conducting Alceste, by Gluck over the coming weeks. http://www.ivorbolton.com/ Ivor Bolton is married to the musicologist, critic, and broadcaster Tess Knighton. They live together with their son in Barcelona, where she is Professor in Spanish renaissance music in the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) and Fellow Emeritus of Clare College, Cambridge University.