Christian Curnyn

Christian Curnyn is a British conductor, harpsichordist and baroque music specialist.

Early life Curnyn was born in Glasgow in April 1971. After reading Music at the University of York, he took postgraduate studies on the harpsichord at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1994, after graduating from the university, he founded the award-winning Early Opera Company.

Career Much in demand on the operatic scene, in the UK Curnyn has conducted for Bampton Classical Opera (Gluck's Le Cinesi), Scottish Opera (Handel's Semele), Opera North (Handel's Saul), Grange Park Opera (Semele, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and Cavalli's Eliogabalo ) and Garsington Opera (Die Zauberflöte). He is a regular at English National Opera where successes have included Olivier Award-winning productions of Handel's Partenope, and Rameau’s Castor et Pollux (dir. Barrie Kosky), After Dido (Katie Mitchell’s realisation of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas), Handel's Giulio Cesare, Charpentier's Medée, and Handel's Rodelinda.

For The Royal Opera, Covent Garden he has conducted Britten’s The Beggar's Opera, Cavalli's Ormindo to inaugurate their series at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, where he returned for Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo (nominated for an Olivier Award), and Claudio Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse at the Roundhouse, In 2022 Curnyn conducted Handel's Alcina directed by Richard Jones.

Further afield he has worked with Opera Australia (Partenope), Landestheater Salzburg (Vivaldi’s Farnace and Handel's Ariodante), Frankfurt Opera (Cavalli's La Calisto and Gluck’s Ezio), Komische Oper Berlin (Rameau's Castor et Pollux and Zoroastre), Opéra national du Rhin (Die Zauberflöte), Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (Idomeneo), Konzert Theater Bern (Don Giovanni) and Stuttgart Opera (Rameau's Platée, Purcell's The Fairy Queen and Handel's Alcina). In the USA Christian Curnyn has conducted Partenope and Mozart's Così fan tutte for New York City Opera, Handel's Tolomeo for Glimmerglass Opera, and Cavalli's Giasone and Charpentier's Medée for Chicago Opera Theater.

Discography Christian Curnyn's extensive discography with the Early Opera Company for the Chandos label includes their 2005 recording of Partenope which won widespread critical acclaim, and their recording of Semele was chosen as a Best Recording of 2008 by The Sunday Times, Serse, Il Trionfo del Tempo for Wigmore Live and in 2017, Acis & Galatea (winner of the Opera category of the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2019). In September 2022, the Early Opera Company released Handel's Amadigi di Gaula, featuring Tim Mead, Hilary Summers, Anna Dennis and Mary Bevan.