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Robert (John Stephen) King is widely acclaimed as one of the leading British conductors of his generation, dividing his time equally between a busy international conducting career and work with the period instrument orchestra and choir, The King's Consort. He was a chorister with the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, where his solo performances included a best-selling recording of Maurice Duruflé's Requiem. He returned to Cambridge University to read for his music degree, and in 1980 he founded The King's Consort, with whom he has toured to almost every European country, to North and South America and the Far East. He made his BBC Proms conducting début in 1991 and has since been invited a further seven times. Robert King is Artistic Director of the ION Festival in Nürnberg.
Robert King now divides his time between an increasingly busy international conducting schedule and work with his own orchestra. As guest conductor, he has recently performed in the USA with the New World, Seattle, Houston, Oregon, Detroit, Atlanta, National, Minnesota and Pacific Symphony Orchestras; in Canada with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and Les Violons du Roy; in the UK with the English Chamber Orchestra; in Scandinavia with the Bergen Philharmonic, the Danish National Radio, Stavanger, Malmö, Trondheim, Sondjelands, Norrköping, Århus, Aalborg and Iceland Symphony Orchestras, Uppsala Kammerorkester and the Jönköping Sinfonietta; in Italy with Il Giardino Armonico, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Verdi Milan, in Germany with the NDR and WDR Symphony Orchestras, the Hamburg Symphony and Munich Radio Orchestra, in Switzerland with the Zürich Chamber Orchestra and RTSI Symphony; in France with Orchestre d'Auvergne and the Monte Carlo Philharmonic; in Holland with the Nederlands Kamerorkest; in Spain with the Orquesta Ciudad de Barcelona, Orquesta Pablo Sarasate, Orquesta e Coro Ciudad de Madrid, Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla; in Israel with Israel Camerata. King is also a noted choral conductor who has worked with the Nederlands Kamerkoor, Choir of New College Oxford, Tölzer Knabenchor, Orfeón Donostiarra, Swiss Radio Choir, Danish National Radio Chorus, Collegium Vocale Gent and the BBC Singers.
Robert King is also noted for his operatic work. His operatic work has included Händel's Ottone in Japan and the UK, Ezio in Paris, as well as Joshua and Alexander Balus; Purcell's The Indian Queen in the UK and Germany, Purcell's The Fairy Queen in Spain and Britain and Gluck's Armide for Buxton Festival.
Engagements over the coming year include return visits to the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, WDR Symphony, RAI National Symphony, Orquesta Pablo Sarasate, the Iceland, Trondheim and New World Symphonies, and débuts with the Baltimore Symphony, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Robert King's repertoire, besides especial acclaim for his interpretation of Baroque music (he is a proponent of the one-voice-per-part approach to Bach.), also includes a wide spread of classical and early romantic works, both symphonic and choral, with a particular focus on the music of Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and Mendelssohn, and a continuing specialisation in early 20th century English composers, notably the works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. King is widely regarded as a leading expert on the music of Henry Purcell. Alongside massive recording editions of the complete Odes and Welcome Songs, the Secular Solo Songs and Sacred Music, he has edited much of the composer's music, wrote a 'the definitive biography' of the composer and served as an artistic director of Wigmore Hall's Purcell Tercentenary Festival.
With the King's Consort Robert King has made ninety-five recordings, which have sold in excess of one million CD's and won many international awards. He is a frequent broadcaster for the BBC, writing and presenting diverse programmes. In the world of film music King was a music consultant for Ridley Scott's epic The Kingdom of Heaven and his harpsichord playing can be heard in the hit film Shrek 2; other recent Hollywood projects include work for The Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, Flushed Away and, assisting award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, The Da Vinci Code. |
