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Biography
Harry Sever is a conductor with a wide-ranging repertoire and a fluency in both operatic and orchestral style. He has conducted in major venues throughout the UK and worldwide in opera, ballet, and concert repertoire. A finalist in the Athens International Conducting Competition, recent and upcoming engagements include Fantasio (Garsington) La Traviata (Opera Holland Park Young Artists), Cendrillon (Bampton Classical Opera), The Nutcracker (Peter Schaufuss Balletten), as well as projects with The Royal Opera Academy, Copenhagen and Birmingham Conservatoire. As an assistant conductor, Harry has worked with Den Jyske Opera (Danish National Opera), the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the Grange Festival, and the Britten Sinfonia at Sadler’s Wells. As a vocal coach and repetiteur, Harry has worked with singers from the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, the National Opera Studio and British Youth Opera, in masterclasses with Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, and Toby Spence, and in workshops with the Southbank Sinfonia and CHROMA. Harry is passionate about community music-making, and is a regular collaborator with English National Opera's Baylis department and Opera Holland Park's Inspire programme. A composer for stage and screen, Harry’s musicals James and the Giant Peach and Guess How Much I Love You have toured internationally. For the theatre, scores include The Kreutzer Sonata (Arcola Theatre), Sleeping Beauty and My Mother Said I Never Should (The Theatre Chipping Norton), King Lear, As You Like It, Love’s Labours Lost (The Minack Theatre), and for screen, Stalker (CBS). Harry is regularly in demand as an arranger and conductor for session and film recording; credits and collaborators include EMI, Nathan Klein (Air Edel), Jon Moon (Sensible Studios), Shadow Child, Flyte, and Brainstorm (Courtyard Studios).
Harry has performed with Jools Holland, Sir Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John, and with Ella Janes at TEDx Roma and The Royal Albert Hall. He is a regular guest on BBC Radio 3's In Tune and his recording of Die Schöne Müllerin was featured in 1,001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Matthew Rye). Harry studied at the Queen's College, Oxford and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. |
Press
An urgent but sensitively calibrated pulse ran through his interpretation... a fine sense for weighting, shared with the City of London Sinfonia' Opera Magazine 'The orchestra was on as thriving form as I can remember - largely due to conductor Harry Sever’s visibly expressive control and illuminating pacing' Opera Now The conductor Harry Sever was alert to the needs of both the singers and the instrumentalists of CHROMA… and drew lovely colours from the latter. Opera Magazine Harry Sever draws a generally enlivened account of the score that sustains the narrative within the stretches of music among the dialogue. A vibrant and witty interpretation of an operatic rarity. Classical Source 'The orchestra makes an alternatively strong and delicate sound under Harry Sever's deft baton' Bachtrack 'Crucial to the action...Harry Sever's Beethoven-indebted score.' The Guardian
'A spell-binding and shattering piece of theatre ... the creaking and splintering of Harry Sever's incidental music alone accompany the narrative' Culture Whisper 'The music adds to the feeling of claustrophobia, of despair, of passion, of drama' London Box Office |