Biography
“Geoffrey Styles conducted with exemplary integrity and modesty…” Sud- Ouest, France
“Without a doubt, Geoffrey Styles …represents a new generation of artists whose future should be radiant.” Sud-Ouest, France
Geoffrey Styles is a young British conductor whose proficiency, musicianship and winning personality are earning him a fine reputation in the music-making world.
Working across a range of genres, Geoffrey Styles is particularly at home in the operatic sphere and commands a repertoire of over forty operas, from Glück to Mozart to Stravinsky to Britten. In September 2002, he was appointed Associate Conductor for the Opéra National de Bordeaux.
Geoffrey started his musical training as Organ Scholar at Westminster Abbey with Simon Preston, and subsequently read Music at the University of Oxford with Stephen Darlington, as Organ Scholar at Christchurch. After two years as Repetiteur at the Opéra National de Paris, Geoffrey was invited by Alain Lombard to join the staff of the Grand-Théâtre de Bordeaux as Assistant Chorus-Master under Günther Wagner, a position that he held until 2002.
Following a successful collaboration with the orchestra of Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos in Lisbon with Messiaen’s Turangalila, Geoffrey Styles was re-invited to conduct Dido & Aeneas last July and Giselle in December. Geoffrey Styles opened this season with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Petrushka for the Opéra National de Bordeaux. Other highlights include concerts with the Strasbourg Philharmonic and family concert presenter Alasdair Malloy as well as performances of Coppélia at the Fenice theatre in Venice in July, which were recorded for subsequent world-wide television broadcast. May saw Geoffrey’s debut with the UK based Hallé Orchestra and the Orchestra of Opera North.
In recent seasons Geoffrey Styles has collaborated on two Ring cycles with the operas of Lisbon and Strasbourg and given highly successful performances with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oxford Philomusica and l’Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine. He finished the 08/09 season by conducting and recording Coppélia at the Opéra National de Bordeaux.
Previous successes in Geoffrey Styles’s career have included the world première of Zatoïchi by Christian Lauba at the Opéra National de Bordeaux in November 2007. These performances were highly acclaimed by international press and were broadcast worldwide by satellite and cable channels in 2008. In May 2005, Geoffrey gave the first performance of La Voix de la Mémoire, Paroles de Déportés, an oratorio by Daniel Galay to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps.
Geoffrey collaborates regularly with other opera houses of great repute around the world, including: the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (The Rake’s Progress, Il Trovatore); the Châtelet (la Fiancée du Tsar); the Bregenzer Festspiele (Blaubart); and l’Opéra National du Rhin (Boris Godunov).
Amongst his projects for next season, Geoffrey has been re-invited to give symphonic concerts with the orchestras of Bordeaux, Monte-Carlo and Strasbourg, and will conduct a production of Messager’s « L’Amour Masqué » for the Opéra National de Bordeaux.