Evans in Danish opera role
FORMER Dunedin conductor Tecwyn Evans has been appointed music director for a top European opera company.
The 46yearold said he was delighted with the appointment to the Danish National Opera (Den Jyske Opera), and was looking forward to starting in the new position in June.
The former Otago Boys’ High School pupil and University of Otago music student said the company is Denmark’s largest touring opera company, with 60 employees, and had been presenting professional opera productions since 1947.
He called the company ‘‘a magnificent family’’.
Accompanying the operas on tour are the five national orchestras — Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Sonderjyllands Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra and the Copenhagen Philharmonic.
Mr Evans previously conducted the company in 2017 as part of their 70th anniversary tour, and in 2016 during their season of Madama Butterfly. He is at the moment conducting Danish National Opera’s touring pro duction of La Traviata.
Opera company general manager and artistic director Philipp Kochheim said: ‘‘He is not only taking very good care of the artistic development of our chorus, but is also a wonderful conductor, a great voice expert and a rare virtue among today’s conductors. He is a master of balance between orchestra pit and singers, which is so essential to the art of opera.’’
Mr Evans said he would remain on staff at the University of Auckland School of Music as parttime lecturer in ensemble conducting.
He previously held positions as Glyndebourne Festival Opera chorus master (19992002), Oper Graz deputy chief conductor (20092011), and has conducted the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Grazer Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and Salomon Orchestra, as well as many New Zealand and Australian orchestras.