Mark Kendall Artists Management Ltd 56 St. Anselm’s Road, Worthing, West Sussex BN14 7EN Tel: +44 (0)1903 233 229 Mobile: + 44 (0)7525 916 598 www.markkendallartists.com email: markkendallartists@mac.com

 

 

David Charles Abell CONDUCTOR

Born in North Carolina David studied with Leonard Bernstein and Nadia Boulanger, gaining degrees from Yale University and the Juilliard School. Intensive study of viola, piano and composition gave way to a concentration on conducting from the age of fourteen. David has conducted many of the top British orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham, Bournemouth, Hallé and Royal Scottish National. His Royal Philharmonic debut was the internationally-televised Tenth Anniversary Concert of Les Misérables, and he has since appeared with the orchestra in repertoire ranging from Copland to Puccini to Kern (Show Boat, also in the Albert Hall). Other guest engagements include the Vienna Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris (Bernstein’s On the Town) and two concerts in Carnegie Hall conducting the New York Pops. His operatic credits include Cape Town Opera (Porgy and Bess), Opera North (Rossini’s La gazza ladra), the Royal Albert Hall (Carmen and Madama

Butterfly) and Sicily’s Luglio Musicale Trapanese (Rigoletto and Manon Lescaut). In 2007, David appeared at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, conducting music by Gian Carlo Menotti. For his work on Menotti’s Maria Golovin, he received the Pegasus Prize for artistic achievement. Summer 2008 was spent at Glimmerglass Opera, conducting Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate and music from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. David made his BBC Proms debut conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra in a live telecast of Richard Rodgers’ Oklahoma! He has worked with the Concert Orchestra on many other occasions, most recently for the world premiere of Rachel Portman’s The Water Diviner’s Tale at the 2007 Proms. His work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra includes Bliss’ Morning Heroes at the Brighton Festival and a studio concert of music by his mentor, Leonard Bernstein. David is a regular guest conductor with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, which he has twice conducted for Proms in the Park (broadcast live on BBC television) as well as Copland’s Third Symphony with the orchestra in Swansea. His performance with Peter Donohoe of the Gershwin Concerto in F from the same concert was featured in BBC Music Magazine. David’s TV projects have included Rachel Portman’s opera The Little Prince and The Waltz King, a drama/documentary about the Johann Strausses, father and son (both subsequently released on DVD). Recordings include Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel, the musicals Miss Saigon, Martin Guerre and Man of La Mancha and highlights from La Bohème and Madama Butterfly with the Royal Philharmonic. Most recently, David conducted the acclaimed new production of Sweeney Todd at the Chatelet, Finding Neverland at the Leicester Curve, Pacific Overtures in Japan, a new production of Porgy and Bess for Cincinnati Opera, the 2010 BBC Proms tribute to Stephen Sondheim, the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary spectacular at the O2 and the 2011 and 2012 Olivier Awards. He was also the first Musical Director on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London. His future projects include Follies at Opéra de Toulon and a return to the Chatelet for Sunday in the Park with George, as well as concerts with the RPO, the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Pasdeloup.