P R O F I L E
Aidan Oliver pursues a diverse career working with a huge range of choral, symphonic and operatic ensembles and organisations.
C H O R A L
Aidan is one of the UK's leading choral directors, working across the whole spectrum of symphonic, liturgical, operatic and contemporary music.
He is the founding director of Philharmonia Voices, the professional choir that has worked with the Philharmonia Orchestra on many of its most high-profile projects since its creation in 2004. Philharmonia Voices made its BBC Proms debut in 2015, and has appeared on numerous broadcasts and recordings with the orchestra.
As guest chorus master Aidan Oliver has worked with choirs including the BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Singers, Huddersfield Choral Society, the Chorus of English National Opera, and the RIAS Kammerchor of Berlin.
Since 2003 he has been Director of Music at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey, where the organist is Thomas Trotter and services have included many high-profile occasions including the memorial services of Lord Snowdon and Jo Cox MP. He has also been the Music Director of Dulwich Choral Society, a flourishing south London chorus, since 2006.
From autumn 2018 Aidan will take up a new appointment as Director of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus.
Benjamin Ealovega
O P E R A
Aidan is a regular guest on the music staff of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, acting as off-stage and assistant conductor as well as organist on numerous productions. He has also worked as Guest Chorus Master on several productions for English National Opera.
For the Philharmonia, Aidan has collaborated on many of the orchestra's highly acclaimed semi-stagings, particularly of twentieth-century operas. These have included both the Proms premiere and the Moscow premiere of Shostakovich's Orango and a much-lauded performance of Dallapiccola's neglected Il Prigioniero.
In his role as Associate Conductor at the Endellion Festival Aidan has worked closely with conductors Martyn Brabbins and Ryan Wigglesworth and regular Festival artists such as Sir John Tomlinson, Roderick Williams, Mark Padmore, Rachel Nicholls and Pamela Helen Stephen.
Simon Ballard
Andrew Lang
O R C H E S T R A L
Aidan has been the Associate Conductor of the St Endellion Summer Festival since 2009, conducting the festival's outstanding Orchestra and soloists in repertoire ranging from Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.5 to Wagner Wesendonck Lieder, Berlioz Nuits d'été and Stravinsky L'histoire du soldat.
Since 2015 Aidan has developed a relationship as guest conductor with Orchestra North East, with concert engagements in Durham including collaborations with Emma Johnson (clarinet) and Anna-Liisa Bezrodny (violin).
Aidan was invited by Lorin Maazel to direct the on-stage chamber orchestra in Britten War Requiem for him in Hong Kong and London; he has also acted as Assistant Conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen and Christoph von Dohnányi in several international tours with the Philharmonia.
Philharmonia Voices appear in Ravel 'L'enfant et les sortilèges' at the Royal Festival Hall