Following his studies at the University of Cambridge, English conductor Adrian Kelly became a member of the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, before becoming a coach at the Hamburg State Opera.
He has worked regularly at the Salzburg Festival, assisting Ingo Metzmacher on Luigi Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore and Wolfgang Rihm’s Dionysos. He has also worked with conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Mark Elder, Peter Schneider, Nicola Luisotti, Philippe Jordan and Simone Young. He has been musical director of the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival since 2015.
His engagements include appearances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and a tour of the USA conducting the Baroque pasticcio The Infernal Comedy with John Malkovich. During the summer of 2014 he conducted a new production of Le nozze di Figaro at Central City Opera in Colorado.
From 2010 to 2017 Adrian Kelly was first Kapellmeister at the Salzburg Landestheater, working regularly with the Mozarteum Orchestra. He has conducted numerous productions in Salzburg, including Krenek’s Jonny spielt auf, Verdi’s Rigoletto and Massenet’s Werther. In February 2016 he conducted the critically acclaimed Austrian premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain. Recent highlights in Salzburg include Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel in the Felsenreitschule and Puccini’s La bohème at the Haus für Mozart. During the 2018/19 season he conducted Massenet’s Manon and a cycle of Mozart’s three Da Ponte operas at the Salzburg Landestheater.
In June 2018 Adrian Kelly was appointed artistic director of the Buxton Festival. In July 2023 he conducted new productions there of Bellini’s La sonnambula as well as Mozart’s Il re pastore. He has been the head of the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House since the start of the 2020/21 season. In 2022/23 he conducted a new production of Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz as well as a revival of Donizetti’s Viva la mamma (Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali) at the Zurich Opera House.
