Timothy Burke repetiteur

Timothy was born in Kingston upon Thames and was a Choral Scholar at HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palce. Educated at Hampton School where he studied the organ with Julie Ainscough, we won the Parry-Wood Organ Scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours in Music. He studied as a repetiteur at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (2004-5), where he was the Assistant Conductor for productions of Mignon and the British première of The Little Green Swallow (Jonathan Dove). He conducted a student company in the concert première of The Crocodile, a one-act opera by fellow student Llywelyn ap Myrddin. In addition to the Opera Course at the Guildhall, Timothy also studied composition for film, television and radio. He wrote the score for the award-winning short Le Cauchemar de l’homme blanc et noir, and later scored the independent feature The Tragedy of Albert for Unreal City Productions.

As a trainee repetiteur at the National Opera Studio (2005-6), Timothy was the grateful recipient of the Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund and the Leonard Hancock Memorial Trust Bursary. His studies at the National Opera Studio were also supported by the Friends of Covent Garden. He went on to join the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme in September 2006. In the 2006/7 season, he was Assistant Conductor on Bird of Night and joined the Royal Opera music staff for Carmen, Orlando, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. In the 2007/8 season, he returned to work on A Midsummer Night's Dream, and to play Celeste and Organ for Salome and Tosca.

Timothy was the founding Chorus Master of Oxford City Opera in their first production, La Bohème, and Assistant Conductor for Carmen at Riverside Opera, returning to work on Nabucco, and to conduct performances of Eugene Onegin. After having been appointed Music Director of Riverside Opera, he conducted Die Fledermaus in a production by Richard Gregson, and will be conducting La Traviata in May 2009, in a production by Elaine Tyler-Hall. He conducted the stage première of The Crocodile for the inaugural Grimeborn Festival 2007 at the Arcola Theatre, and returns this summer to conduct The Old Maid and the Thief (Menotti) and a Triple Bill including The Boy Who Said Yes (Brecht/Weill) and a short opera of his own composition, Astyanax. Future plans include assisting Peter Manning on Burial at Thebes, a collaboration between Seamus Heaney, director Derek Walcott, and composer Dominique Le Gendre, at the Globe Theatre in October.