Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música

BIOGRAphy

Laurence Cummings principal conductor

Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música was formed in 2006 to perform Baroque music from a historically informed perspective. Besides regular work with its principal conductor, Laurence Cummings, the orchestra has performed under the direction of Rinaldo Alessandrini, Alfredo Bernardini, Amandine Beyer, Fabio Biondi, Harry Christophers, Antonio Florio, Paul Hillier, Paul McCreesh, Riccardo Minasi, Hervé Niquet, Andrew Parrott, Rachel Podger, Christophe Rousset, Dmitri Sinkovsky, Andreas Staier and Masaaki Suzuki, accompanying soloists such as Roberta Invernizzi, Franco Fagioli, Peter Kooij, Dmitri Sinkovsky, Alina Ibragimova, Rachel Podger, Marie Lys, Iestyn Davies, Rowan Pierce, Andreas Scholl, Pieter Wispelwey, Ilya Gringolts, Fernando Guimarães, Anna Dennis and Nuria Rial, and in the company of vocal groups like The Sixteen, Coro Casa da Música and Coro Infantil Casa da Música.

The OBCM concerts have attracted unanimous critical acclaim from critics in Portugal and abroad. It presented the Portuguese premiere of Handel’s opera Ottone and the modern premiere of L’Ippolito by Francisco António de Almeida. The orchestra went on tour in Spain (Úbeda y Baeza Early Music Festival, Ourense and Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona), England (Handel Festival in London), France (Dijon Opera and Baroque Festivals in Sablé and Ambronay), Germany (BASF in Ludwigshafen am Rhein), Austria (Konzerthaus Vienna) and China (Beijing Conservatory), in addition to various Portuguese cities.

It joined Coro Casa da Música to perform Bach’s Mass in B minor, Magnificat, Easter, Ascension, and Christmas Oratorios and several Cantatas, Charpentier’s Te Deum and Missa Assumpta est Maria, Handel’s Messiah, Domenico Zipoli’s Vespers of Saint Ignatius, Haydn’s St. Cecilia Mass, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. OBCM has worked regularly with the internationally renowned harpsichordist, Andreas Staier, with whom it recorded the album À Portuguesa (Harmonia Mundi, 2018) featuring two works by Carlos Seixas, among others. This programme was performed in Porto and on tour, and its 2024 revival takes the Orquestra Barroca to visit the Lyon Auditorium. In the last seasons, the orchestra performed the complete Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, several settings of the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, Charpentier, Vivaldi and Scarlatti, Monteverdi’s Vespers, Händel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ, and Telemann’s Water Music, among many others.

The repertoire to be presented in 2024 includes excerpts from António Leal Moreira’s serenades, José Joaquim dos Santos’ Stabat Mater, and Handel’s Messiah. The orchestra collaborates with internationally renowned artists, such as the conductor and soloist Andreas Staier, soprano Rowan Pierce, and baritone Josep-Ramon Olive. On stage will also be Portuguese soloists, including sopranos Joana Seara and Sara Braga Simões, flutist Marta Gonçalves, and oboists Pedro Castro and Andreia Carvalho.

OBCM released live CDs including works by Avison, D. Scarlatti, Carlos Seixas, Avondano, Vivaldi, Bach, Muffat, Handel, and Haydn, under the direction of some of the most prestigious international conductors.

Principal Conductor

LAURENCE CUMMINGS

Laurence Cummings is one of the most versatile musicians in the field of historical performance in England, both as a harpsichordist and conductor. He is the musical director of Academy of Ancient Music, the London Handel Festival, and Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música. He is considered an authority on Handel’s music and “one of the best advocates of the composer worldwide”.

Frequently acclaimed for his sophisticated and thrilling interpretations in opera houses, he has performed across Europe, conducting productions for the Opernhaus Zürich (Belshazzar, King Arthur), Theater an der Wien (Saul), Göteborgsoperan (Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Giulio Cesare, Alcina, and Idomeneo), the Théâtre du Châtelet (Saul), and the Opéra de Lyon (Messiah). In the UK, he is a regular guest of English National Opera (Radamisto, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Semele, Messiah, Orfeo, and Indian Queen), the Glyndebourne Festival (Saul, Giulio Cesare, and Fairy Queen), and Garsington Opera (L’Incoronazione di Dario, L’Olimpiade, and Vivaldi’s La Verità in Cimento). He has also performed at the Linbury Theatre Covent Garden (Berenice and Alceste), Opera North (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), the Buxton International Festival (Tamerlano and Mozart’s Lucio Silla), and with Opera Glassworks (The Rake’s Progress). In the 2020/21 season, he organized the final edition of the Göttingen International Handel Festival as Artistic Director, a position he held for nine years.

Cummings is also an experienced conductor in concert halls and is frequently invited to conduct period and modern instrument orchestras, including Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Concert, Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, Hrvatski barokni ansambl, La Scintilla (Zurich), Juilliard 415, Musikcollegium Winterthur, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestras of Basel, Moscow, and Scotland, and Washington, Kansas, Jerusalem, and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestras. In the UK, he has conducted Royal Northern Sinfonia, Hallé Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

His discography includes recordings with Emma Kirkby and Royal Academy of Music (BIS), Angelika Kirchschlager and Basler Kammerorchester (Sony BMG), Maurice Steger and English Concert (Harmonia Mundi), and Ruby Hughes and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Chandos). He has also recorded a series of operas and concerts at the Göttingen Internationella Händelfestivalen (Accent), as well as numerous solo harpsichord and chamber music recitals for Naxos.

He was an organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with distinction. Until 2012, he was the head of historical performance studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where he established baroque and classical orchestra practice in the curriculum. William Crotch is now Professor of Historical Performance.