Harry Bicket

Britain's Harry Bicket stands as a central figure in the nation's early music movement, displaying unusual breadth as a musician whose work spans operatic and orchestral conducting alongside performance on harpsichord and organ. Longstanding ties link him to The English Concert, an ensemble among the initial wave of British historical-performance groups.

Born in Liverpool in 1961, Bicket studied at Radley College, Christ Church, Oxford, and the Royal College of Music, concentrating on organ. After completing his training he obtained significant organ appointments, first at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and subsequently as sub-organist at Westminster Abbey, where he played for the 1986 wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. He also joined The English Concert as a harpsichordist in 1984, maintaining an association with the ensemble that lasted many years. His conducting profile expanded markedly after a widely noted substitution at the 1996 Glyndebourne Festival, where he led David Daniels, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Dawn Upshaw. Early in the 2000s he conducted Handel's Orlando at Covent Garden with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (2003) and Handel's Rodelinda at New York's Metropolitan Opera with Renée Fleming in the title role. The next year he directed the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on Fleming's popular Handel album. He led several Handel productions at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico, becoming the company's chief conductor in 2013 and adding the title of music director in 2018, a post he held through 2022.

Concurrently with these operatic engagements, Bicket has served as conductor of The English Concert, assuming artistic leadership of the group in 2007. Recordings with the ensemble include a 2018 Signum Classics album of concertos by dall'Abaco, Porpora, Marcello, and others. He also directed The English Concert on Il Caro Sassone with soprano Lucy Crowe and on a set of early Handel arias sung by soprano Alice Coote. In the early 2020s Bicket and The English Concert moved to Linn Records, releasing a 2021 recording of Handel's Rodelinda, HWV 19, and La resurrezione, HWV 47, the following year, both featuring Crowe.