Paul McCreesh

Paul McCreesh has established himself at the highest levels in both the period instrument and modern orchestral fields and is recognised for his authoritative and innovative performances on the concert platform and in the opera house. Together with the Gabrieli Consort and Players, of which he is the founder and Artistic Director he has performed in major concert halls and festivals across the world and built a large and distinguished discography for Deutsche Grammophon.

McCreesh works regularly with the major European orchestras and choirs, and the larger choral repertoire is featuring increasingly in McCreesh’s work. Recent projects have included Britten’s War Requiem with the Spanish National Symphony, Brahms’ German Requiem with the Danish Radio Symphony, Haydn’s Creation with the Iceland Symphony and Haydn’s The Seasons with the Netherlands Philharmonic. Future projects include Berlioz’s Grande Messe de Morts and further performances of The Seasons across Europe.

He has appeared with orchestras such as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle, MDR Leipzig, Orchestra of Santa Cecilia (Rome), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He also works regularly with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, with whom he will tour in the 10/11 season with mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager.

McCreesh’s 10/11 season includes engagements with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Schleswig-Holstein Academy Orchestra as part of the Music Festival and his debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He will conduct Mozart’s Requiem with the Copenhagen Philharmonic in Copenhagen Cathedral and with the Norwegian Opera Orchestra at the Oslo Church Music Festival, and the Dvorak Requiem with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

McCreesh has established a strong reputation in the field of opera; in 07-8 he conducted Handel’s Tamerlano at the Teatro Real in Madrid with a cast that included Placido Domingo, returning in 08-9 with Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. For Welsh National Opera, he has conducted Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice and Handel’s Jephtha to considerable critical praise, and he has also conducted Mozart and Handel at the Royal Danish Opera and Komische Oper, Berlin.

McCreesh’s recent recordings for Deutsche Grammophon include A Spotless Rose, which BBC Music Magazine had “no hesitation in labelling essential”, and Haydn’s Creation, which received a 2008 Gramophone Award for Best Choral Recording. Other discs include Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Gluck’s rarely performed opera Paride ed Elena with Magdalena Kozena, The Road to Paradise, a collection of sacred choral music from the renaissance to the present day, Handel arias with Rolando Villazon and Handel’s Saul, described in The Times as “one of the most roundly satisfying Handel oratorio performances for some time”.

Paul McCreesh has been Director of Brinkburn Music (in Northumberland, UK) for many years, and in 2006 was appointed Artistic Director of the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, one of Eastern Europe’s most prestigious and vital cultural events. McCreesh is also passionate about working with young musicians, and works regularly with Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and many international youth orchestras and choirs.