CHRISTOPHER QUENTIN
MCMULLEN-LAIRD
Conductor
American conductor Christopher Quentin McMullen-Laird will start the 2019-2020 season in his new post of Music Director of the Jæren Symfoniorkester in Norway. He started his career at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where he prompted over 50 opera productions, working alongside Music Directors Kent Nagano and Kirill Petrenko. Christopher has conducted productions for Cape Cod Opera, Opera Providence, Opera Rogaland, Schlosstheater Rheinsberg, Tokyo Opera Association, and the education department at the Bayerische Staatsoper. He has also assisted on dance productions at the Royal Ballet and Rambert Dance Company in London.
In addition to his work in opera and ballet, Christopher enjoys a busy and varied concert schedule. He was previously Music Director of the Munich International Orchestra, the Bjergsted Symfoniorkester and the Phoenix Youth Orchestra, and has appeared as guest conductor with the Dartington Festival Orchestra, the Filharmonia Zielenogorska, and the Abaco Orchester. Debuts this season include the Surrey Mozart Players, Sandnes Symfoniorkester and Stavanger Amatørsymfoniorkester. He also currently serves as interim Music Director for the Kings College London Symphony Orchestra. Christopher has extensive experience working with amateurs and young musicians as a regular workshop assistant for BBC Learning and the Royal College of Music Sparks programmes.
Christopher was a Leverhulme Arts Scholar at the Royal College of Music London where he earned a Master’s of Music in Conducting. At the RCM he performed with all major ensembles and developed a particular interest in memorisation and performing music with movement. Christopher’s work in these fields won him the 2018/2019 Mercers’ Arts Award for combining theoretical knowledge with public performance.
He earned his Bachelor’s degree at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA, and has held Fellowships at the Hochschule für Musik Weimar and the University of Stavanger.
Repertoire
Operas Conducted in Performance
Cherubini Le porteur d’eau (world premiere of the new critical edition 2008)
Gershwin Blue Monday/135th Street Blues (Jazz Opera)
Griffeath-Loeb, B. Sicut erat (world premiere 2004)
Hamlisch A Chorus Line
Humperdinck Hänsel und Gretel (in German, excerpts)
Ishita, E. The Town in the Sky
Jenkins, K. Eloise, an opera for young people
Kleiberg, S. David and Bathsheba (first fully-staged production 2015)
Lehár The Merry Widow (in English)
Purcell The Tempest
Mozart Bastien und Bastienne, La clemenza di Tito (excerpts), Le nozze di Figaro (excerpts)
Sibata Forgotten Boys (German premiere 2011)
Weber Abu Hassan
Operas Assisted & Prompted
Beethoven Fidelio
Bellini I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Berlioz Roméo et Juliette (Chorus master)
Bernstein Candide (Chorus master)
Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Bizet Carmen
Donizetti L’elisir d’amore, Lucrezia Borgia, Roberto Devereux
Dvorák Rusalka
Handel Alcina
Henze Elegie für junge Liebende (German)
Humperdinck Hänsel und Gretel
Janácek Jenufa, Vec Makropulos
Lloyd-Weber, A. Evita
Mayr Medea in Corinto
Messiaen St. François d’Assise
Mozart La clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte
Mussorgsky Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina
Poulenc Les dialogues des Carmélites
Puccini La Bohème, Tosca, Turandot
Ravel L’enfant et les sortilèges
Rossini La Cenerentola, Il barbiere di Siviglia
Srnka, M. South Pole (world premiere 2016)
Strauss, J. Die Fledermaus
Strauss, R. Arabella, Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier, Die schweigsame Frau
Tchaikovsky Eugen Onegin
Verdi Falstaff, Otello, Rigoletto, Simone Boccanegra, La Traviata
Wagner Der fliegende Holländer, Götterdämmerung, Das Rheingold, Lohengrin, Siegfried, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Die Walküre, Oberon
Weber Der Freischütz
Widmann Babylon
Zemlinsky Der Zwerg