WEBINAR: Interview with Maestro Nicholas Braithwaite

Maestro Nicholas Braithwaite has led performances of more than 70 operas, including at the English National Opera where he conducted an acclaimed Wagner Ring cycle. Braithwaite studied at the Royal Academy of Music, at the Festival masterclasses in Bayreuth and with Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. In the 1960s, Braithwaite was associate conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He served as resident conductor at Sadler’s Wells Opera for three seasons, from 1971 to 1974, where he conducted Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle. After departing Sadler’s Wells in 1974, Braithwaite held two important operatic posts. The first was as music director of the Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1976-1980, and the latter, in Gothenburg, as music director at the Stora Theater Opera, from 1981-1984. 

 

Braithwaite next began conducting both symphonic and operatic music in Australia, eventually serving as chief conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 1987-1991. During this time he also served as principal conductor of the Manchester Camerata. Braithwaite also held posts with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and several others. In the new century Braithwaite has been active in the recording studio and has freelanced in both opera and symphonic music. Among his available recordings is a series of some 30 CDs released by Lyrita. He recently published his autobiography So what does a conductor do?: A life of music.

 

The son of a conductor, Nicholas Braithwaite experienced his first Bayreuth Festival as a child in 1951 and returned as a young musician to attend Friedelind Wagner’s Bayreuth Master Classes (long ago disbanned).