Robert King

English conductor and harpsichordist Robert King, who was born in 1960 in Wombourne (South Staffordshire), received his earliest musical training as a choirboy with the world-famous Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, also performing as soloist. While a music student at Cambridge University, he founded The King’s Consort in 1980, which he continues to lead, appearing in concert all over the globe. King is also active as a choral director with close ties to the Collegium Vocale Ghent, the BBC Singers, and the Netherlands Chamber Choir. He has additionally appeared as conductor with a series of orchestras including the Seattle, Houston, Oregon, Detroit, Atlanta, Minnesota, and NDR Symphony Orchestras, the Munich Radio Orchestra, and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. He has also performed as guest artist with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Orchestra della RAI Torino, the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano, and the Orquesta e Coro Ciudad de Madrid. Robert King’s artistic focus is on music of the baroque, but he has a special interest in the orchestral literature of the classical and early-romantic eras as well, from Haydn to Mendelssohn, and in English composers of the early 20th century. King is also widely recognized as an expert in Purcell scholarship and performance: in 1995 he supervised celebrations marking the 300th anniversary of the English composer’s death at Wigmore Hall in London and in the same year published a monograph on Purcell’s life and work. King frequently writes and broadcasts for the BBC and has served as a music consultant for such Hollywood films as The Da Vinci Code and Ridley Scott’s The Kingdom of Heaven. His extensive discography of some 95 CDs to date has garnered many international awards.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 25 March 1999 in Handel’s La Resurrezione di Nostro Signor Gesù Cristo.

March 2012