{"id":2336905,"date":"2026-03-19T14:16:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2336905"},"modified":"2026-03-19T14:16:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:16:26","slug":"longborough-festival-opera-names-christopher-ward-as-new-music-director-for-2027-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/longborough-festival-opera-names-christopher-ward-as-new-music-director-for-2027-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Longborough Festival Opera Names Christopher Ward as New Music Director for 2027 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"off2\" style=\"background: linear-gradient(135deg, #1a1a1a 0%, #2d2d2d 100%); border-radius: 12px; padding: 10px;margin: 10px 0; box-shadow: 0 8px 32px rgba(0,0,0,0.3); border: 1px solid #333;\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-content\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<h3 class=\"newsletter-title\" style=\"color: #ffffff; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0 0 10px 0; line-height: 1.3; font-family: \" arial=\"\" sans-serif=\"\">\n            \ud83c\udfad NEW! Opera Theatre Newsletter<br \/>\n        <\/h3>\n<p class=\"newsletter-subtitle\" style=\"color: #cccccc; font-size: 16px; margin: 0 0 20px 0; line-height: 1.5; font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif;\">\n            Get all the top news &amp; discounts for Opera &amp; beyond.\n        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Longborough\u00a0Festival Opera has appointed conductor Christopher Ward as its new Music Director from the 2027 season. London-born Ward joins\u00a0Longborough\u00a0Festival Opera\u00a0 from\u00a0Theater\u00a0Aachen and\u00a0Sinfonieorchester\u00a0Aachen, where he has served as General Music Director since 2018. He brings more than two decades of experience working at leading German opera houses, alongside a broad international guest\u00a0conducting career that includes appearances at Staatsoper Hamburg,\u00a0Komische\u00a0Oper Berlin, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Staatsoper Prague and Welsh National Opera.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"nobreak\">\n<div class=\"row message-latest-news\" style=\"background-color:#000000;padding:5px;margin-bottom:10px;border-top-width:0px;margin-top: -2px;margin-left: -15px;padding-bottom: 0px;\">\n<div class=\"off-broadway-newsletter\" style=\"background: linear-gradient(135deg, #1a1a1a 0%, #2d2d2d 100%); border-radius: 12px; padding: 10px;margin: 10px 0; box-shadow: 0 8px 32px rgba(0,0,0,0.3); border: 1px solid #333;\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-content\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<h3 class=\"newsletter-title\" style=\"color: #ffffff; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0 0 10px 0; line-height: 1.3; font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif;\">\n            \ud83c\udfad NEW! Opera Theatre Newsletter<br \/>\n        <\/h3>\n<p class=\"newsletter-subtitle\" style=\"color: #cccccc; font-size: 16px; margin: 0 0 20px 0; line-height: 1.5; font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif;\">\n            Get all the top news &amp; discounts for Opera &amp; beyond.\n        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">Ward&#8217;s appointment follows an extensive international recruitment process\u00a0and comes at a significant moment for LFO as it approaches the 30th anniversary of its purpose-built theatre and looks ahead to an ambitious and exciting future. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">Ward succeeds\u202fAnthony Negus, who has been Music Director of\u00a0Longborough\u00a0Festival Opera for more than two decades and was part of the recruitment panel. Negus will become Conductor Laureate in 2027, conducting the company&#8217;s anniversary production of Wagner&#8217;s\u202fDie Meistersinger von N\u00fcrnberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">Christopher Ward said:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">\u201cLongborough\u00a0Festival Opera, founded through the bold vision of Martin and Lizzie Graham, is a truly special place, with deep and loyal relationships with its audiences and a strong commitment to nurturing future generations through its education and community work. From my first meetings with the team, I was struck by their collective enthusiasm and collaborative spirit, and I am hugely excited to join them and to bring the experience I have gained over two decades working within the German opera house system to the next chapter of the festival.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- End Ezoic - Article Insertion 1 - under_page_title --><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">The 2026 Festival opens on 30\u00a0May\u00a0with a new production of Handel&#8217;s Orlando, and continues until 8 August with Verdi&#8217;s Macbeth,\u00a0Humperdinck&#8217;s Hansel and Gretel\u00a0and Wagner&#8217;s Tristan und Isolde.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; text-align:left\">\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nAbout Christopher Ward\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u202f\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">London-born conductor Christopher Ward is a highly versatile musician, widely praised for his dynamic and compelling presence on the podium. His creative programming, commitment to contemporary music and imaginative education initiatives have earned acclaim from critics and audiences alike.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">Christopher studied at Oxford University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, working early in his career with Oxford&#8217;s Philharmonia &amp; Chorus, Bach Choir and New Chamber Opera. He was\u202fsubsequently\u202fappointed\u00a0R\u00e9p\u00e9titeur\u00a0Fellow at Scottish Opera and the RSAMD in Glasgow.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">In 2004 he joined the International Opera Studio of Zurich Opera before making Germany his artistic home, serving from 2005 as\u202fSolorepetitor\u202fand Kapellmeister at\u202fStaatstheater\u202fKassel. There he conducted\u202fnumerous\u202fnew productions and concerts with the\u202fStaatsorchester\u202fKassel, alongside periods as chorus master and director of the theatre&#8217;s annual youth orchestra project. A formative highlight was\u202fassisting\u202fSir Simon Rattle on Wagner&#8217;s\u202fDas Rheingold\u202fwith the Berliner Philharmonic at the\u00a0Aix-en-Provence\u00a0Festival, later continuing this work in Berlin and Salzburg.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!-- Ezoic - Article Insertion 2 - mid_content --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- End Ezoic - Article Insertion 2 - mid_content --><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">From 2009, Christopher was Kapellmeister and musical assistant to Kent Nagano at the Bavarian State Opera, conducting premieres and concerts and collaborating with the Bayerische\u202fStaatsorchester\u202fand opera studios in Munich and Milan. He went on to serve as Kapellmeister at\u202fSaarl\u00e4ndisches\u202fStaatstheater, conducting repertoire ranging from Rameau and Weber to Verdi and the German premiere of\u202fHaas&#8217;\u202fBluthaus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">As a guest conductor, he has appeared at major European\u00a0opera\u00a0houses including Staatsoper Hamburg,\u202fKomische\u202fOper, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Oper Graz and Staatsoper Prague. In 2019 he conducted the world premiere of J\u00f6rg Widmann&#8217;s\u202fBabylon\u202fat short notice at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, stepping in for Daniel Barenboim.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">His recordings for Naxos and Capriccio have received international acclaim and multiple Opus\u00a0Klassik\u00a0nominations, including projects with leading German and European orchestras.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!-- Ezoic - Article Insertion 3 - long_content --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- End Ezoic - Article Insertion 3 - long_content --><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:0; margin-right:0; text-align:left\">Since 2018, Christopher has served as\u00a0Generalmusikdirektor\u00a0of\u00a0Theater\u00a0and\u00a0Sinfonieorchester\u00a0Aachen, where\u00a0he\u00a0has strengthened music standards\u00a0across opera and concert repertoire, developed a period-instrument baroque ensemble\u00a0from within the orchestra, championed forgotten composers and expanded audiences through innovative programming and outreach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!-- Whatsapp --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Whatsapp --><\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p><\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}\n(window,document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nfbq('init','128124764529976');\nfunction uuidv4(){\n  if (window.crypto && crypto.getRandomValues) {\n    return 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx'.replace(\/[xy]\/g,c=>{\n      const r=crypto.getRandomValues(new Uint8Array(1))[0]&15, v=c==='x'?r:(r&0x3|0x8); return v.toString(16);\n    });\n  }\n  return 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx'.replace(\/[xy]\/g,c=>{\n    const r=Math.random()*16|0, v=c==='x'?r:(r&0x3|0x8); return v.toString(16);\n  });\n}\nconst fbEventId = uuidv4();\nconst topicParams = {\n  show_name: \"\",\n      region: \"Opera\"\n};\nfbq('track','PageView',{}, {eventID: fbEventId});\nfbq('trackCustom','TheatreTopicView', topicParams, {eventID: fbEventId});\n<\/script><script>\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}\n(window,document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nif (!window.fbq || !window.fbq.loaded) {\n    fbq('init','128124764529976');\n  }\nfunction uuidv4(){\n  if (window.crypto && crypto.getRandomValues) {\n    return 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx'.replace(\/[xy]\/g,c=>{\n      const r=crypto.getRandomValues(new Uint8Array(1))[0]&15, v=c==='x'?r:(r&0x3|0x8); return v.toString(16);\n    });\n  }\n  return 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx'.replace(\/[xy]\/g,c=>{\n    const r=Math.random()*16|0, v=c==='x'?r:(r&0x3|0x8); return v.toString(16);\n  });\n}\nconst fbEventId = uuidv4();\n\/\/ Build topicParams with all available variables\nconst topicParams = {\"region\":\"Opera\"};\n\/\/ Only track if fbq is available and hasn't been tracked yet for this page\nif (window.fbq && typeof window.fbq === 'function') {\n  fbq('track','PageView',{}, {eventID: fbEventId});\n  fbq('trackCustom','TheatreTopicView', topicParams, {eventID: fbEventId});\n}\nfunction getCookie(n){return document.cookie.split('; ').find(r=>r.startsWith(n+'='))?.split('=')[1]||'';}\nfunction toHex(buf){return Array.from(new Uint8Array(buf)).map(b=>b.toString(16).padStart(2,'0')).join('');}\nasync function sha256Hex(s){\n  try{const b=new TextEncoder().encode(s.toLowerCase().trim());const h=await crypto.subtle.digest('SHA-256',b);return toHex(h);}catch(e){return null;}\n}\n(async()=>{\n  const fbp = getCookie('_fbp') || null;\n  let fbc = getCookie('_fbc') || null;\n  if (!fbc) {\n    const fbClick = getCookie('fb_click_id');\n    if (fbClick) fbc=\"fb.1.\" + Math.floor(Date.now()\/1000) + '.' + fbClick;\n  }\n  let em = null;\n  const emailCookie = getCookie('EMAIL');\n  if (emailCookie) em = await sha256Hex(emailCookie);\n  const payload = {\n    event_id: fbEventId,\n    event_source_url: window.location.href,\n    action_source: 'website',\n    user_data: {\n      fbp,\n      fbc,\n      ...(em ? { em } : {}),\n                  client_ip_address: \"34.107.4.2\",\n                  client_user_agent: \"Mozilla\/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit\/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome\/126.0.0.0 Safari\/537.36 Edg\/126.0.0.0\",\n          },\n    events: [\n      { name: 'PageView', params: {} },\n      { name: 'TheatreTopicView', params: topicParams }\n    ]\n  };\n  const url=\"\/meta_capi.php\";\n  const body = JSON.stringify(payload);\n  if (navigator.sendBeacon) {\n    navigator.sendBeacon(url, new Blob([body], {type:'application\/json'}));\n  } else {\n    fetch(url, { method:'POST', headers:{'Content-Type':'application\/json'}, body, keepalive: true });\n  }\n})();\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.broadwayworld.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ud83c\udfad NEW! Opera Theatre Newsletter Get all the top news &amp; discounts for Opera &amp; beyond. Longborough\u00a0Festival Opera has appointed conductor Christopher Ward as its new Music Director from the 2027 season. London-born Ward joins\u00a0Longborough\u00a0Festival Opera\u00a0 from\u00a0Theater\u00a0Aachen and\u00a0Sinfonieorchester\u00a0Aachen, where he has served as General Music Director since 2018. He brings more than two decades of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2336906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2336905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Longborough-Festival-Opera-Names-Christopher-Ward-as-New-Music-Director.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2336905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2336907,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336905\/revisions\/2336907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2336906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2336905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2336905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2336905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}