Laurence Cummings

Laurence Cummings has built an extensive discography both at the harpsichord and, with growing frequency later in his career, on the podium leading the Academy of Ancient Music and additional period-instrument ensembles. Although widely recognized for his expertise in Handel, he has also committed to disc works by numerous other composers of the Baroque era.

Born in Birmingham, England, in 1968, Cummings completed his secondary education at Solihull School in the West Midlands before reading at Christ Church College, Oxford University. His commitment to a professional life in music solidified during studies at the Royal College of Music in London, where the harpsichord became his principal focus under the guidance of Jill Severs. He soon secured continuo positions with prominent early-music ensembles across Britain and abroad, among them The Sixteen, Les Arts Florissants, and the Gabrieli Consort. His first recording appeared in 1995, a solo harpsichord program devoted to Louis Couperin suites issued by Naxos; several further solo discs for the same label followed through the late 1990s and early 2000s.

During the new century Cummings turned more regularly to conducting. His initial appearance on disc in that capacity arrived in 2001 on BIS, presenting Handel’s Gloria—rediscovered only that year—together with Dixit Dominus, HWV 232. He has since directed both specialist period groups such as The English Concert, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and modern symphonic organizations including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Ulster Orchestra, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. His American debut took place with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, and he has additionally led the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2011 he was appointed artistic director of Germany’s Göttingen International Handel Festival. He has led opera productions at the English National Opera and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, while many of his 2010s recordings, released on Accent and other labels, featured Handel operas or oratorios. Between 1997 and 2012 he served as Head of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music. Two further albums appeared in 2022: a recording of Handel’s Rodelinda, HWV 19, with the FestspielOrchester Göttingen on Accent, and an anthology titled The Crown: Heroic Arias for Senesino, recorded with countertenor Randall Scotting and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.