Biography
Born in 1980, Christopher Ward studied at Oxford University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. He was awarded the position of Répétiteur Fellow at Scottish Opera and the RSAMD, Glasgow, and went in to work at the Internationales Opernstudio at Zürich Opera before moving to Germany in 2005 to work as Solorepetitor and Kapellmeister at Staatstheater Kassel. In 2006, he assisted Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in a production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the Aix-en-Provence Music Festival, and continued this association in Berlin and Salzburg (Easter Festival 2007).
Christopher Ward became Kapellmeister and Assistant to Kent Nagano at the Bavarian State Opera in 2009. He not only led new productions of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Haydn’s La fedeltá premiata and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and world premieres of Eötvös’ Die Tragödie des Teufels, Ronchetti’s Narrenschiffe and Srnka`s Make No Noise (opening the international Munich Summer Opera Festival with Ensemble Modern), but also led concerts with the Bayerische Staatsorchester and Orchesterakademie, and the Opera Studios of Munich and La Scala, Milan. As guest conductor, he has directed performances at the Staatsoper Hamburg, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Komische Oper, Oper Graz, Salzburger Landstheater, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatstheater Mainz, and Staatstheater Darmstadt, as well as conducting concerts with the Bremer Philharmoniker, Staatsorchester Braunschweig, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Cottbus Philharmonic, Neue Lausitz Philharmonic and Altenburg-Gera Philharmonic orchestras. He also directed the world premiere of Čekovská’s opera Dorian Gray at the Slovak National Theatre and Prague Spring International Music Festival 2015. In 2014 Christopher Ward became 1st Kapellmeister at the Saarländisches Staatstheater. Here he led new productions of Weber’s Der Freischütz, Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and Rigoletto, Dvořák’s Rusalka, Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and Daphnis et Chloé, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel, Rameau’s Platée, and Haas’ Bluthaus, as well as a number of revivals, ballets and symphonic concerts.
In the 2017/18 season he makes his debut with Britten’s Billy Budd at the National Theatre, Prague, alongside premieres of Bernstein's Candide at Theater Bremen, Verdi's Nabucco and Obst's Solaris in Saarbrücken, a return to Hamburg Staatsoper for Gounod's Faust, and a CD of Schreker's orchestral music with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie for Capriccio.
2017/2018 season