Musical Director: Andrew Griffiths
A musician of rare versatility, Andrew Griffiths combines his role as Head Coach at the National Opera Studio with a busy freelance career in the worlds of opera and choral music.
A graduate of the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, he has conducted productions for The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Opera Theatre Company, Opera Collective Ireland, Early Opera Company, Mid Wales Opera, Bampton Classical Opera and Iford Festival Opera. He has appeared in concert with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Swan, Southbank Sinfonia and Orpheus Sinfonia, and he is regularly engaged to broadcast and record with the BBC Singers.
Andrew has worked at Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, and with the BBC Symphony and Scottish Symphony Orchestras, and regularly joins the music staff at The Royal Opera, working alongside such conductors as Pappano, Bychkov, Gardiner and Mackerras. He is often engaged for projects outside the standard operatic canon, and is particularly experienced in Baroque repertoire and the music of the last 50 years. He is much in demand as a vocal coach, he works regularly with the Young Artists at The Royal Opera, as well as overseeing the training of the Young Artists at the National Opera Studio.
In constant demand as a choral conductor, Andrew appears regularly with the BBC Singers, for whom his engagements have included the world première of John Pickard’s Mass in Troubled Times, recordings of Brahms, Hassler, Barber, Ives and Giles Swayne, and broadcasts of Howells, MacMillan and Martinů, as well as a Barbican debut directing music from the Flemish Renaissance. He is Musical Director of Kingston Choral Society and chamber choir Londinium, whose recordings have received wide critical acclaim. He regularly conducts for the Music Summer School at Gresham’s, and has appeared as a guest conductor with the BBC Symphony Chorus, the choirs at Dartington, New London Chamber Choir, and Hong Kong’s Tallis Vocalis.
A pianist, viola player and singer by training, Andrew began his musical education as a Quirister and Scholar at Winchester College, and read music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he held a Choral Exhibition. He studied conducting under Martyn Brabbins in Glasgow, and trained as a répétiteur at the National Opera Studio and at Scottish Opera. He is a former principal viola of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and a founder member of vocal consort Stile Antico.
Engagements during the current season include conducting contemporary opera scenes at the National Opera Studio directed by Keith Warner, a return to Bampton Classical Opera for Salieri’s La locandiera, Handel’s Israel in Egypt at Gresham’s, assistant conductor for Il trovatore at The Royal Opera, and chorus-master for Boulez’s Cummings ist der Dichter with the BBC Singers.
Photo courtesy of Ben McKee.
Rehearsal Pianist: George Ireland
Praised as “an accomplished collaborator” (Edinburgh Music Review) and for a “superbly voiced instrumental partnership” with singers (Sussex Express), George Ireland is establishing himself as one of Britain’s most exciting emerging collaborative pianists, working across song, opera and choral music.
Passionate about the accompanist’s unique role in the relationship between conductor and choir, George has worked with the BBC Symphony Chorus, preparing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Mariana Rosas, and with choirs in Cambridge for performances of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis under Edward Gardner. Alongside his work with Kingston Choral Society, he enjoys ongoing collaborations with Constanza Chorus under Joanna Tomlinson, Wimbledon Choral Society under Daniel Mahoney, and East London Chorus under Jessica Norton.
Raised near Harwich in Essex in a working-class, non-musical family, George began teaching himself the piano at the age of 14. His first formal lessons came through Essex County Music Service before studies with Trevor Cordwell in Colchester. He later read Music at the University of Birmingham before graduating with distinction from the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Simon Lepper and Roger Vignoles, holding the Kendall Taylor Award for Outstanding British Pianists.
In recital, George enjoys collaborations with singers including Jessica Cale, Julieth Lozano Rolong, Caroline Taylor, Hugh Cutting and Guy Cutting, as well as clarinettist Mebrakh Haughton-Johnson. He has accompanied two Kathleen Ferrier Award-winning recitals, while recent highlights include appearances at the Edinburgh International Festival, Brighton Festival, Oxford International Song Festival and the Crete Senesi Festival in Tuscany, alongside live and recorded broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. His debut album with tenor Guy Cutting will be released on Signum Classics in early 2027.
Alongside his recital and choral work, George is in demand as a répétiteur, working regularly with Glyndebourne Youth Opera, Grange Park Opera, Waterperry Opera Festival and Opera Holland Park.
A Samling Artist, George has also worked with distinguished musicians including Dames Felicity Lott, Felicity Palmer and Ann Murray, Natalie Murray Beale, Sir Thomas Allen, Christopher Purves, Mark Padmore, Helmut Deutsch and Roderick Williams.
Photo courtesy of Sophie Patterson.