PRINCIPAL GUEST
CONDUCTOR
"Kraemer underlined a few harmonic hairpin turns in the first movement and brought crackling verve to the blistering fugue."
Chicago Tribune
Nicholas Kraemer has been Music of the Baroque’s principal guest conductor since 2002. He began his career as a harpsichordist, quickly moving from playing continuo at the back of the orchestra to directing from the harpsichord at the front. While performing with the English Chamber Orchestra in the 1970s, his repertory widened, taking in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well as the Baroque. In 1978, he formed Raglan Baroque Players, with whom he continues to perform and holds the title Music Director.
From 1983 to 1985, Mr. Kraemer was Associate Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and from 1986 to 1992 he was Artistic Director of the Irish Chamber Orchestra. He was Artistic Director of the London Bach Orchestra from 1985 to 1993. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Manchester Camerata and Permanent Guest Conductor of Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur (Switzerland).
Nicholas Kraemer has appeared with Kioi Sinfonietta and Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan, the Berlin Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonisch Orkest, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Israel Chamber Orchestra and numerous other groups.
Recent engagements have included performances with the Toronto Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival and Seattle Baroque. He makes his début with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in November 2007.
Mr. Kraemer’s opera repertoire ranges from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and L’incoronazione di Poppea to nineteenth- and twentieth-century works including Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos; Britten’s Albert Herring, Noye’s Fludde and Paul Bunyan; and Stephen Oliver’s Tom Jones, The Beauty and the Beast and Euridice. He has conducted many Handel operas including Arianna in Creta, Lotario, Tolomeo, Arminio, Ariodante, Il Pastor Fido, Rinaldo and Orlando, as well as the major Mozart operas. He conducted at Glyndebourne from 1980 to 1983, and was the first music director of Opera 80, now English Touring Opera. Among his most recent opera engagements, he conducted The Magic Flute and Handel’s Jeptha at English National Opera, Agrippina for Theater Aachen (Germany), and made his U.S. opera début with Central City Opera (Colorado) in L'incoronazione de Poppea.
Among Nicholas Kraemer’s recordings are several discs of Vivaldi concertos with City of London Sinfonia for Naxos; Locatelli concerto grossi, Tartini violin concertos and concertos by Durante, Pergolesi and Leo with Elizabeth Wallfisch and Raglan Baroque Players for Hyperion; Handel’s Rodelinda for Virgin Classics; and works by Thea Musgrave with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for Collins Classics. He has contributed to several feature films, most notably as Baroque music director for The Madness of King George.
