Roger Hamilton
Teaching Fellow in Historical Performance
Email: [email protected]
Roger Hamilton was born in Ireland, and his first professional musical experience was as a singer and horn-player. Subsequently he studied Music at Clare College Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio; and later Philosophy and Psychology at Oxford Brookes University. In 1992 he was appointed Arts Council of Great Britain Young Conductor of the Year, and he now has a varied career as conductor, harpsichordist, musicologist and teacher which has taken him all over the world.
In opera he has conducted for Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels, Nederlandse Reisopera, New Kent Opera, Opera Northern Ireland, and Cambridge University Opera, and he has worked as a vocal coach with many other companies including the Göttingen Handel Festival, Maggio Musicale Florence, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, English Bach Festival and Glyndebourne Touring Opera. At the RNCM, his productions in recent years of Handel, Monteverdi, Gluck and Mozart have been highly praised, and the production of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice which he conducted for Nederlandse Reisopera in 2015 was voted Best Opera of the Year in the Netherlands.
In the concert hall he has conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Südwestrundfunk Orchester Stuttgart, The English Concert, Orchestra of the National Arts Centre Ottawa, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, European Sinfonietta, Israel Camerata and Fränkisches Kammerorchester, and he has been assistant conductor for, among others, the Berlin Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Salzburg Camerata, London Classical Players and Les Arts Florissants.
As a harpsichordist and organist he has given chamber concerts, recitals and broadcasts throughout Britain and Europe, and in North and South America, as well as performing and recording with countless ensembles including English Baroque Soloists, Les Arts Florissants, Avison Ensemble, The English Concert, Gabrieli Consort, La Serenissima and Concerto Köln. He is Music Director of The Band of Instruments in his home town of Oxford.
For two years he was in charge of Historical Performance at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and he has also taught at the Britten-Pears School, New College Oxford, Royal College of Music, Trinity College of Music, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and for El Sistema in Venezuela. He is currently Teaching Fellow in Historical Performance at RNCM.
