Iestyn Davies, Robin Ticciati and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Biographies

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) was founded in 1981 by young musicians from the European Community Youth Orchestra. Today, ensemble is made up of 60 hand-picked members, soloists and section leaders from renowned orchestras, acclaimed chamber musicians, and professors. From the very beginning, the orchestra has worked with important conductors and soloists. Claudio Abbado was a particularly important mentor in the group's early years; they made award-winning recordings together, including Gioacchino Rossini’s opera Il viaggio a Reims and all of Franz Schubert’s symphonies. Nikolaus Harnoncourt was also a seminal collaborator; they recorded all of Beethoven’s symphonies together, as well as playing for opera productions at the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Festival and the Styriarte.

Robin Ticciati

Violinist, pianist, percussionist, conductor: Robin Ticciati is a multi-talented musician who started young. He was already playing the timpani in the British National Youth Orchestra at the age of 15. It was there that Sir Simon Rattle discovered the young musician’s conducting talent and became his mentor. This was followed by conducting engagements with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, invitations to the Salzburg Festival and to La Scala, Milan, where he was the youngest conductor ever to appear. He was chief conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra from 2009 to 2017 and principal guest conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra from 2010 to 2013. In 2017, Ticciati became of chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, a position he will hold until summer 2025. Since 2014, Ticciati has also been Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

Iestyn Davies

Iestyn Davies is one of the outstanding countertenors of his generation. He is celebrated by audiences and the press on both sides of the Atlantic for his interpretations of major baroque roles, particularly in operas by Monteverdi and Handel, but he has also received acclaim in stage works by Mozart and leading British contemporaries such as Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and Nico Muhly. “Working with contemporary composers has made me realise what a shame it is that Handel and Mozart are no longer around to share their intentions with us,” says the York-born singer. “It makes me look back on both of them with open eyes and wonder what these composers really wanted.”