Howard Arman

Howard Arman, who was born in 1954 in London, studied at the Trinity College of Music in his native city and began his career as a conductor chiefly of choral works in the field of Baroque music. From 1983 to 2000 he led the Salzburg Bach Choir, with whom he performed Handel’s Israel in Egypt at the Salzburg Festival in 1995 and, in 1997, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. From 1998 to 2013 he served as Artistic Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir and was also a regular guest conductor of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 2011 to the summer of 2016 Arman held the position of Music Director at the Luzerner Theater, where he conducted new productions of Bellini’s Norma and Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims in the 2015-16 season; on 3 June he concluded his tenure with a performance of Tippett’s oratorio A Child of Our Time. In September 2016 Arman starts his role as Artistic Director of the Bavarian Radio Choir. Arman enjoys a close association with the Handel Festival in Halle, where he undertook the first production on period instruments of Tolomeo in 1996 and, in 2009, the memorial concert for the 250^th anniversary of Handel’s death as part of a Special Day conceived by him. He earned worldwide attention for his performance of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven at the Vatican to mark the 25^th anniversary of the papacy of John Paul II, which was broadcast to many countries. He has also appeared at the Vienna Volksoper, Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Arman’s recordings of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers and Graun’s Passion cantata Der Tod Jesu bothwonEcho Klassik Awards. He has also garnered the Handel Prize of the City of Halle and the Mozart Prize of the Saxon Mozart Society.

Howard Arman made his LUCERNE FESTIVAL conducting debut on 19 March 2013 with Poulenc’s Stabat Mater and Bizet’s Te Deum.

August 2016