David Angus, Music Director of Boston Lyric Opera might have been separated from his company by an ocean during the pandemic, but it has not stopped him from creating new and innovative concepts of how to present opera online. The Boston Globe wrote: “In its creativity and resilience at a time of crisis, BLO has been setting the bar for the city’s arts organizations”. Both productions, Desert In and The Fall of the House of Usher can still be viewed online on operabox.tv. Now for the first full season again David conducts Romeo and Juliette open air in the park and new productions of La Bohème and Bluebeard’s Castle/ Four Songs by Alma Mahler.
In winter 22/23 David is joining the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm to conduct the new production of Sweeney Todd directed by the Opera’s Artistic Director Michael Cavanagh.
Recent projects included orchestral concerts both in the USA and UK as well as recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Last February David conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Valentine’s Opera Gala at Cadogan Hall in London. Just before lockdown in 2020, David returned to Hawaii Opera Theatre for a run of Le Nozze di Figaro.
Prior to his time at Boston Lyric Opera David was the Music Director of Glimmerglass Opera in upstate New York as well as Chief Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Flanders, where he played a major part in establishing it as Belgium’s most exciting and successful new orchestra. In recent seasons he has made his debuts at the Toscanini Orchestra in Parma, the Porto Symphony Orchestra, and he returned to Wexford Festival Opera, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Huddersfield Choral Society, and to his former orchestra in Belgium for the World Premiere of a major choral and orchestral work, the Symphony of Trees by Piet Swerts.
David Angus started out as Chorus Master and Staff Conductor for Glyndebourne Festival Opera both in the Festival and on tour. His operatic career then took him to Italy, primarily to conduct in Turin, but also in Milan, Bologna and Modena. In Britain, he worked at Scottish Opera, Opera North and English Touring Opera, as well as conducting several British premieres for the Brighton Festival. He has appeared with the Canadian Opera Company, Cleveland Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Danish National Opera, Malmö Opera and Icelandic Opera.
He has led orchestras and choirs all over Europe, particularly in Scandinavia where he has been a regular guest with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and several Danish orchestras. He has conducted most of the major orchestras in Great Britain including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, London Mozart Players, most of the BBC orchestras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In North America, he conducted the Utah Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony and the Calgary Philharmonic.
Born in England and from Danish descent, David Angus spent his early years in Belfast. He was a boy chorister at King's College, Cambridge, under Sir David Willcocks, and he read music at Surrey University. He finished his training with a Fellowship in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he won several prizes for his opera conducting.
September 2022
