Nicholas Chalmers (born 1977, Hammersmith) is an English conductor, and former artistic director of

Nevill Holt Opera Nevill Holt Festival, previously known as Nevill Holt Opera is an arts festival at the end of June and beginning of July that is held at The Nevill Holt Estate in Leicestershire, the home of Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross. History Nev ...

, a role he held from 2012 to 2023. Since 2023 he has been principal conductor of the

National Youth Choir The National Youth Choir, formerly known as the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and the British Youth Choir, is a family of choirs for outstanding young singers, and those with outstanding potential, in the United Kingdom. It comprises fiv ...

's 18-25 group, and an associate conductor of the

BBC Singers The BBC Singers is a professional British chamber choir, employed by the BBC. Its origins can be traced to 1924. One of the six BBC Performing Groups, the BBC Singers are based at the BBC Maida Vale Studios in London. The only full-time profes ...

Biography

Chalmers was born in west London to musical parents, and sang as a chorister while attending

Tewkesbury Abbey The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury, commonly known as Tewkesbury Abbey, is located in the town of Tewkesbury in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England. A former Benedictine monastery, it is now a parish church. Conside ...

School. At the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, he continued as a music student, before continuing to study conducting at Conservatorio di Musica di Piacenza. Initially his principal focus was church music. He held an organ scholarship at Chichester Cathedral, and went on to become assistant organist and Director of Music of the Choir School at Westminster Abbey between 2003 and 2008. He also became Organist and Director of Music at

St Jude's Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb The Parish Church of St Jude-on-the-Hill (usually known simply as St Jude's), is the parish church of Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London. The suburb was founded in 1907 by Henrietta Barnett to be a model community where all classes of peopl ...

in 2003, celebrating twenty years in the role in 2023. An interest in stage performance led Chalmers to found a performance company in 2004, Second Movement, together with a university friend

Oliver Mears Oliver Mears is an English opera director. Early life Mears read English and History at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he was awarded a Double First Class Honours Degree in English and History. He began assisting the playwright and director How ...

and Abigail Toland. From 2008 until 2011 Chalmers was assistant chorus master of

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in E ...

, preparing opera repertoire alongside then-music director

Edward Gardner Edward Gardner may refer to: * Edward W. Gardner (1867–1932), American balkline and straight rail billiards champion * Edward Joseph Gardner (1898–1950), U.S. Representative from Ohio * Ed Gardner (1901–1963), American actor, director and wr ...

, and guest conductors including

Mark Wigglesworth Mark Wigglesworth (born 19 July 1964) is a British conductor. Biography Born in Sussex, Wigglesworth attended Bryanston School, Manchester University, and the Royal Academy of Music in London.. He won the Kondrashin Conducting Competition in A ...

and

Sir Charles Mackerras Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; (17 November 1925 – 14 July 2010) was an American-born Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associ ...

. From 2010 he also began conducting operatic performances at Northern Ireland Opera in Belfast and other locations. In 2012, Chalmers was engaged by David Ross of

Carphone Warehouse Carphone Warehouse is a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent Carphone Wareh ...

to found an opera company at Nevill Holt Hall. The company began performances in 2013. Under Chalmers' direction, the company opened a new 400-seat theatre on the site in 2018, and gave an award-winning outdoor production of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde in 2017. Chalmers held the role of music director of the company until his resignation in 2023, citing a desire to move on to new challenges. His resignation coincided with the company's announcement that it would cut back its 2023 programme due to insufficient ticket sales. In his resignation statement, Chalmers clarified that although he had played no part in the decision to make cutbacks, the decision was separate from his resignation. The opera company rebranded itself as the ''Nevill Holt Festival'' in 2024. Chalmers made his

BBC Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

conducting debut in 2020 with the

. This was followed by further broadcasts and concerts with the group, including developing a relationship between the choir and youth choral groups in Stratford East. He was appointed as the BBC Singers' associate conductor for learning in June 2023. This was followed by an appointment in September 2023 as Principal Conductor of the

's 18-25 year group, taking over from Ben Parry. Chalmers is a Senior Associate Artist of the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

, where he will make his conducting debut in autumn 2024. He is scheduled to take up the role of Fernside Chair of Choral Conducting at The Royal Academy of Music from September 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalmers, Nicholas English male conductors (music) Living people 21st-century English conductors (music) 21st-century English male musicians 1977 births