Bridget Cunningham

Britain's Bridget Cunningham works across multiple domains in early music as a conductor, keyboard player, and scholar, while also reaching international audiences through numerous radio broadcasts.

She earned an honors degree in music from the University of Southampton in 1996 after completing conducting classes there. At the Royal College of Music she pursued studies in harpsichord, organ, and continuo playing, receiving a master's degree in Performance Studies in 2002. During that period she extended her conducting experience into Baroque repertoire by taking lessons or closely observing specialists such as Christopher Hogwood and attending his campus rehearsals. Following her graduation she performed as a solo harpsichordist for Prince Charles and the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace, and she has also appeared at Maison Hine and the Château de Hautefort in France as well as at the London Handel Festival. Her radio work includes an Austrian broadcast alongside pianist Angela Hewitt together with further appearances on Radio France, RTÉ in Ireland, SkyArts, BBC Radio 3 and 4, and BBC television documentaries.

Cunningham's conducting activities form the core of her professional profile. As artistic director of London Early Opera she issued her first recording in 2015, the album Handel in Italy, Vol. 1. She has become recognized for her focus on Handel and on particular phases of his career, resulting in two volumes each of Handel in Italy and Handel at Vauxhall plus the 2017 release Handel in Ireland, Vol. 1. In 2021 she appeared as keyboard soloist on Handel's Eight Great Harpsichord Suites. Additional collaborations include work with the all-female ensemble Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi, which aims to recreate the sound of Vivaldi's groups at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, and with the Baroque dance ensembles Mercurius Company and Les Plaisirs des Nations, including a presentation at Yale University. On the Signum Classics label she directed a 2022 recording of Handel's pasticcio Caio Fabbricio, HWV A9.