Principal Conductor

Nicholas Kok is a very versatile conductor and musician. In the concert hall, the opera house and on radio he has conducted numerous world and British premieres, including works by Birtwistle, Holt, Maxwell Davies, Reich, Turnage and Xenakis. In 2007 he was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor to the leading contemporary music ensemble Psappha (short listed for the best ensemble in the Royal Philharmonic Society awards), with which he has recorded and toured extensively. From 1996 to 2006 he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of Sinfonia ViVA (formerly East of England Orchestra), where he performed an extremely large and varied repertoire; he was recently appointed the orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor. 

For English National Opera he has conducted Orfeo, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse, The Fairy Queen, The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, King Priam, a double-bill of world premieres by Turnage - The Country of the Blind and Twice through the Heart - in a joint production with the South Bank and the Aldeburgh Festival, and the world premiere of Alec Roth and Vikram Seth's opera Arion and the Dolphin. He made his Opera North debut conducting the world premiere of Simon Holt's The Nightingale's to Blame at the Huddersfield Festival in 1998, where he also conducted the British premiere of Hindenburg, a major new work by Steve Reich. He returned to Opera North for a new production of Gluck's Orfeo in 2004 and in 2007 for a new production of Les Noces/Dido and Aeneas. Festivals at which he has appeared include Edinburgh, BBC Proms, Orkney, Cheltenham, Montepulciano and "Sound Around" in Copehhagen/Malmo. 

Nicholas Kok made his debut at the Stuttgart Staatsoper in 1997 conducting Purcell's King Arthur, and returned for a new production of L'incoronazione di Poppea and revivals of Hänsel und Gretel and L'italania in Algieri. In 2009 he conducted a hugely successful new production of Gluck's Orphee for the same house. For Cologne Opera he has conducted Le nozze di Figaro and a new production of Semele, which he also directed in Graz. In Lisbon he conducted Handel's Agrippina at the Teatro Sao Carlos and in Klagenfurt he conducted highly acclaimed productions of Handel's Teseo and Cavalli's Il Giasone, and for CPO, Porto, a new production of L'Elisir. He played a large part in setting up Almeida Opera for which he conducted Mario the magician by Stephen Oliver and A Family Affair by Julian Grant. For Opera Factory London he conducted Poppea, Dido and Aeneas, Cosi, The Magic Flute, Curlew River, The Bacchae (Xenakis), Sarajevo (Osborne) and Reimann's The Ghost Sonata and for OF Zürich La Calisto and Marschner's Der Vampyr, in his own version for chamber orchestra. Other operatic engagements have included Don Giovanni for English Touring Opera, Il Barbiere for DGOS, Cendrillon by Pauline Viardot for Opera Rara and Gerald Barry's The Intelligence Park for Almeida Festival/Opera Factory. For McKinsey/WDR/Arte Nicholas conducted the world premieres of Alexander Krampe's reworkings of Rousseau's Pygmalion and Bizet's Carmen. 

Orchestras and ensembles he has worked with include the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Radio Sinfonieorchester Berlin, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (RTE) Ireland, Ulster Orchestra, Halle, Het Gelders Orkest, Liepaja SO, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Lancashire Sinfonietta, London Sinfonietta, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Jenaer Philharmonie, Orchestra of St John's Smith Square, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Philippines Philharmonic, RNCM and the Almeida, Endymion, Nash, Premiere, Remix and Resonanz Ensembles. 

Nicholas Kok works frequently with the BBC Singers, with whom he has recorded a huge repertoire, including numerous world premieres, and has also directed Schola Cantorum and the New London Chamber Choir. He has recorded for radio and television and has written and arranged music for both mediums, as well as working as assistant/banda conductor on many recordings for Opera Rara and Chandos. He has worked closely with many choreographers (as conductor and arranger) and has conducted for Birmingham Royal Ballet (incl. Le Baiser de la Feu, Petrushka and Firebird), Scottish Ballet (Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet and Sleeping Beauty) as well as three programmes at the Edinburgh Festival, Mendelssohn and Rangström with Swedish Royal Ballet and a programme with Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre. He played the premiere of his own music for Scottish Dance Theatre's "Out of the House" performances, and the world premiere of his 7th Degree was performed by Julian Bliss and ViVA conducted by the composer. 

Future plans include further performances of Gluck Orphée et Euridice for Staatstheater Stuttgart, Bernstein Trouble in Tahiti at the London Southbank and Buxton Festival, Britten Albert Herring at the RAM and concerts and recordings with the BBC Singers, Psappha and Viva.