conducting engagements

Referees provided on request

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Musical Director & Arranger, Gothic Opera x Grimeborn Festival x Arcola Theatre [Marschner Der Vampyr]; London, UK — 2024
Revival of 2019 production for Grimeborn Opera Festival

• Devising proposal to reduce original production by 30+ minutes 
• Liaising with Director & Company on castings, shortlisting artists & holding live auditions
• Creating new vocal score, full score and orchestral parts with approved cuts, revised script & new underscorings (MuseScore 3, GIMP 2.10)
• Creating new chamber ensemble arrangement for 4 players (Piano/harmonium, cello, bass, sousaphone doubling mixed whistles)
• Sourcing and trialling whistle effects
• Devising strategy and schedule for soloist coachings, ensemble cast music rehearsals and orchestral sessions in line with a revival timeline (14 total rehearsal days)
• Daily score edits to suit staging concept/development
• Hiring orchestral musicians
• Preparing surtitle build (Google Slides, Keynote) and briefing operator
• Consulting on promotional/marketing materials & strategy
• Hiring & mentoring Assistant Conductor
• Preparing programme note and two promotional interviews
• Conducting 4 sold-out performances across 4 consecutive nights

Conductor Kelly Lovelady’s witty arrangement for a small band included whistles and sousaphone and was an imaginative delight.

Mark Aspen Reviews

Conductor Kelly Lovelady, heroically dynamic, has arranged Marschner’s orchestral score for just four musicians … the ensemble imaginatively captures the dark timbre of Marschner’s original.

The Guardian

Music director Kelly Lovelady’s arrangement for cello, double bass, sousaphone(!) and piano works tremendously well, with Jasmin Allpress doubling on wheezy harmonium for Scottish gothic horror atmosphere.

Bachtrack

Musically, Der Vampyr is a treat. The orchestra, under Lovelady’s direction, deftly navigates Marschner’s score in her new arrangement … a tour de force of vocal and orchestral power that had the audience on the edge of their seats.

Everything Theatre

Assistant Conductor, Britten Sinfonia & Anthony McGill [Anthony Davis You Have the Right to Remain Silent]; London, UK — 2023 

• Collaborative score prep with conductor Pablo Urbina 
• Collation of errata across a problematic edition
• Liaison with Kurzweil player Earl Howard on an unnotated sampler part 
• Communication of sampler part back to conductor
• Liaison with venue and orchestra staff
• Making and delivering rehearsal notes to and from players, soloists and conductor
• Assisting Earl Howard (visually-impaired) in rehearsals and performance

Rehearsal Conductor; London, UK — 2022
– Whitehall Orchestra [Brahms Symphony #1, Coleridge-Taylor Idyll]
– Harmony Sinfonia [Rachmaninov Symphony #2]

Assistant Conductor to Jürg Henneberger x Ensemble Phoenix Basel x Ensemble SoloVoices [Michael Hersch Poppaea]; Basel, Switzerland and Vienna, Austria — 2021
World premiere production of a major new opera by composer Michael Hersch and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann for Festival Zeiträume Basel and Wien Modern

• Mastery of a dense microtonal score
• Making and delivering rehearsal notes across a six-week rehearsal period to principals, chorus, conductor and repetiteurs
• Offstage conducting for most rehearsals
• Composer liaison by email and in person
• Liaison with festival directors and staff
• English language coaching as required
• Private conducted coachings on request
• Preparing surtitles in consultation with librettist and festival co-director
• Operating bilingual surtitles for all performances

Assistant Conductor to Beatrice Venezi, Opera Holland Park x City of London Sinfonia [Mascagni L’amico Fritz]; London, UK — 2021

• Cover conductor for piano rehearsals 
• Making/delivering notes to conductor for all stage rehearsals
• Collating errata across an extremely problematic orchestral arrangement
• Communicating 100s of corrections to players in 2 days (Orchestral rehearsal, 2 x Stage & Orchestra rehearsals, General rehearsal)
• Consulting with OHP producers on substandard rental partset/publisher responsibility

Musical Director & Arranger, Gothic Opera x Old Church, Stoke Newington [Marschner Der Vampyr]; London, UK — 2019
Headhunted for Gothic Opera’s inaugural production: a site-specific performance for the Old Church, Stoke Newington and transfer to two satellite venues. The production enjoyed a sold-out season and was nominated for Best Opera Production in London’s 2019 Off West End Awards

• Creating a revised vocal score to support a reduced cast and newly-commissioned libretto
• Creating an arrangement for chamber ensemble of 7
• Auditioning singers
• Recruiting orchestral players
• Co-creating cast and orchestra rehearsal schedules with director Julia Mintzer 
• Conducting all calls across an intensive 5-week rehearsal season and 5-show run

The music was wonderful and the young singers were outstanding. The ensemble work in particular was astonishingly good; the Musical Director must be a genius!

facebook.com/rictor.norton

Workshop Conductor, London Sinfonietta Academy [Hans Abrahamsen Märchenbilder]; London, UK — 2019
Short notice invitation to conduct an ensemble of 14 London Sinfonietta members for a 1-hour rehearsal

Rehearsal Conductor, Fortismere Community Choir [Beethoven Missa Solemnis]; London, UK — 2019

Second Conductor to Ilan Volkov, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra [Gloria Coates Symphony No.11]; Glasgow, UK — 2018
Short notice jump-in as co-conductor for rehearsals and performance of Gloria Coates Symphony No.11 [WP revised version] recorded for delayed broadcast on BBC Radio 3 Hear and Now

Conducting Fellow, Cortona Sessions for New Music; Cortona, Italy — 2018, 2019
Selected for one of 2 fellowship positions at 2-week residential festival of contemporary music

Assistant Conductor to Brad Cohen, Opera Holland Park x City of London Sinfonia [Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos]; London, UK — 2018

Guest Conductor, Wind Chamber; Winnipeg, Canada — 2018
University of Manitoba/Brandon University massed clarinet choirs in music by Holst, Rossini, Philip Glass and Artie Shaw

Guest Conductor, Scordatura Women’s Music Collective; London, UK — 2017
Programme including world premiere of chamber orchestra commission by Yfat Soul Zisso

Assistant Conductor to Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra; London, UK — 2016

Guest Conductor, Greenpeace Requiem for Sinking Cities; London, UK — 2016
Conducted a popup performance at the British Museum calling for ethical arts sponsorship

Workshop Leader, Heart n Soul x Sound and Music; London, UK — 2016 
Chamber music workshop with London Symphony Orchestra musicians — music by Bobbie-Jane Gardner and Lizzie Emeh

Guest Conductor, Lewisham Choral Society x The Membranes; London, UK — 2016
Devised/conducted a unique choral collaboration with acclaimed British post-punk band

Assistant Conductor to Otto Tausk, Theater St Gallen [ George Benjamin Written on Skin]; St Gallen, Switzerland — 2015

Guest Conductor, Shakespeare’s Globe; London, UK — 2015
Conducted an ensemble handpicked by guitarist John Williams for the Concerts by Candlelight series in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Guest Conductor, Greenpeace Requiem for Arctic Ice; London, UK — 2015
Conducted singer Charlotte Church and an expanded Ligeti Quartet in a popup performance for the Save the Arctic campaign generating international media attention

Librarian & Rehearsal Conductor, Young Orchestra for London; London, UK — 2015
Preparation and management of orchestral parts for 100 players; liaison with production teams from Barbican and Southbank Centres, publishers, composers, arrangers, agents, tutors and conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Duncan Ward and Ben Gernon

• Short notice jump-in as rehearsal conductor for world premiere of Zero at the Bone: mixed-ability commission by Stephen Montague for large orchestra of students aged 11-17

Regular Guest Conductor, Tait Chamber Orchestra; London, UK — 2010–2014
Annual charity gala Winter Prom at venues including St John’s Smith Square, Australian High Commission, St Paul’s Knightsbridge

The lively and innovative Australian conductor Kelly Lovelady held a diverse evening together with her wide-ranging musical skills … [not least] her ability to fine-tune an orchestra like a well-trained piano accompanist, following her soloists with great skill and offering support at every turn.

limelight magazine

What was not in doubt was the quality of the performers on show throughout this Winter Prom … perfectly balanced against the Tait Chamber Orchestra, unfussily and sympathetically conducted—here and elsewhere—by Kelly Lovelady.

seen and heard international

Musical Director & Artist-in-Residence, Cluster New Music & Integrated Arts Festival; Winnipeg, Canada — 2012
Conducted/devised 3 new operas by Canadian composers for the 2012 festival: Matthew Ricketts No Masque for Good Measure [WP], Luke Nickel Ophiuchus Rising [WP], Heidi Ouellette The Gashlycrumb Tinies

Guest Conductor, City of London Festival; London, UK — 2012
European premiere of Philip Houghton The Light on the Edge at Fishmongers’ Hall by invitation of guitarist John Williams

Guest Conductor, Cluster New Music & Integrated Arts Festival [Matthew Ricketts Sensual Emergency]; Winnipeg, Canada — 2011
Commissioned/devised a Surrealist kabarettfor mixed ensemble of 7 players on texts of Frederic Rzewski

Assistant Conductor to Richard Bonynge x Tait Chamber Orchestra x Naxos Records [William Vincent Wallace Chopinesque]; London, UK — 2011

Guest Conductor, West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra; Leeds, UK — 2009–10
10-week community orchestra rehearsal season culminating in performance of Jean Sibelius Symphony No.2

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