British conductor Robin Ticciati is to become Glyndebourne Festival music director from January 2014. The 28-year-old will take over from Vladimir Jurowski, who in 2001, aged 29, became the festival’s youngest musical director. Ticciati, who makes his debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera this year, will be the the seventh director in the festival’s 77-year history. He said Glyndebourne offered “unrivalled opportunities”.
“Creating opera with such talented artistic teams and world class musicians in an organisation that places great emphasis on detailed musical preparation is a genuine privilege,” he added.
Ticciati, who will be 31 when he takes over, is principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and balances orchestral and operatic performances. This year he will be conducting The Marriage of Figaro at the Salzburg Festival and Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne. Glyndebourne general director David Pickard said Ticciati would continue Glyndebourne’s “long tradition of artistic excellence and innovation”.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.
