The 2022/23 season marks Nicholas Carter’s second as Chief Conductor and Co-Operndirektor of Oper Bern.
This season in Bern, he leads main stage productions of Die Walküre, L’enfant et les sortilèges and Iolanta and appears in in the Berner Symphonieorchester subscription season. This season will see debut appearances for Nicholas with Opernhaus Zurich (Pearl Fishers), Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Dresden Semperoper (Die Zauberflöte). This season also includes return engagements with the Metropolitan Opera (Peter Grimes), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Verdi Requiem in collaboration with Staatsballett Berlin), Orchestre Metropolitain and Rundfunk- Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
From 2018 to 2021, Nicholas Carter was chief conductor of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and the Kärntner Sinfonieorchester and conducted many new productions and regular symphonic programmes in the orchestra’s concert series. His repertoire included acclaimed productions of Tannhäuser, Pelléas et Mélisande, Simon Boccanegra, Rusalka, Elektra, Cendrillon and La Clemenza di Tito.
Nicholas was Principal Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 2016 – 2019 and has established a reputation as a conductor of exceptional versatility, equally at home in the concert hall and opera house, and fluent in a diverse repertoire. Indeed, his appointment in Adelaide was significant, as he became the first Australian to be chosen as Principal Conductor of an Australian orchestra in over 30 years. During his tenure, notable projects with ASO included a commercial recording of the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Jayson Gillham. Between 2011 and 2014, he served as Kapellmeister to Simone Young in Hamburg, before moving on to a 2-year engagement as Kapellmeister and Musical Assistant to Donald Runnicles at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a house where he enjoys a rewarding ongoing association.
Highlights of recent seasons include his critically acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut with Brett Dean’s Hamlet, his Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut, (Le nozze di Figaro), concert debut with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin including Brett Dean’s Pastoral Symphony and Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony and further debuts with Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Bochumer Symphoniker, MDR Leipzig, Essener Philharmoniker, Oregon Symphony, Florida Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre National de Lille and Santa Fe Opera (Eugene Onegin, Die Fledermaus). Return visits have included to BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Don Carlo, Don Pasquale), the orchestra of the Australian National Academy of Music Melbourne, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and to Deutsche Oper Berlin (Rigoletto, The Love for Three Oranges, Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème, La Traviata and Hansel und Gretel).
In Australia, he has collaborated regularly with many of the country’s leading orchestras and ensembles and led the 2018 Adelaide Festival’s acclaimed full staging of Brett Dean’s Hamlet. Past engagements have included the Melbourne, Sydney, West Australian, Queensland and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras with soloists such as Michelle de Young, Simon O’Neill, Alina Ibragimova, Alexander Gavrylyuk and James Ehnes; also galas with Maxim Vengerov (Queensland Symphony) and Anne Sofie von Otter (Sydney Symphony).
In 2010, before embarking on his European career, his wide-ranging musical interests led him to found a period orchestra in Sydney focusing on the music, instruments and historical performance practices of the early 19th century and his three-year association with the Sydney Symphony, first as Assistant Conductor, later as Associate Conductor, gave him the opportunity to work closely with Vladimir Ashkenazy and a number of the orchestra’s guest conductors. At the invitation of Donald Runnicles, he also served as Associate Conductor of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming from 2010 to 2013.
Hamburg titles included Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, Cosi fan tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor, Hänsel und Gretel, in addition to directing Cleopatra by Johan Mattheson and Orontea by Antonio Cesti from the harpsichord. He was also heavily involved in the preparation of a vast repertoire, including in the presentation of 10 Wagner operas from Rienzi to Parsifal, as well as a complete Ring Cycle to celebrate the composer’s bicentenary. Deutsche Oper Berlin titles have also included Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet (with Staatsballet Berlin), Carmen, Die Zauberflöte, The Rape of Lucretia and L’Elisir d’Amore.
Commercial recordings have also included the cello concertos of Klengel, Robert & Clara Schumann, R.Strauss and Brahms with Raphaela Gromes and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in 2021 for Sony Classical. This album received widespread critical acclaim, including a Diapason d’Or.