Michael MacLeod

Michael MacLeod was appointed Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011. Previous to this he was General and Artistic Director of Glimmerglass Opera (the summer opera festival in central New York state). There, he programmed a broad range of operatic repertoire, and was responsible for presenting the first-ever staged performances in North America of Wagner’s second completed opera “Das Liebesverbot” (The Ban on Love), inspired by Shakespeare’s play “Measure For Measure”.

As Director of the City of London Festival, Michael presented “Carmen” (conducted by Sir Colin Davis, in concert), Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress” (a semi-staging with the London Symphony Orchestra and Anne Sofie von Otter, Bryn Terfel and Ian Bostridge), and the first UK performances of Korngold’s complete incidental music to “Much Ado About Nothing” interspersed with the famous speeches from the Shakespeare play.

During Michael’s 12 years running Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir and orchestras (1984-1996), he organized performances and recordings of numerous operas including the early version of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” (“Leonore”), the seven mature operas by Mozart, Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” (at the Salzburg Festival) and Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” in the open amphitheatre in Pompeii.