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The Irish conductor, violinist and composer, Kevin Mallon, was born in New Jersey, USA. However, at an early age he went to live in Belfast, Northern Ireland and became a student at St. Malachy's College. He won a scholarship to Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, UK, where he was greatly influenced by the conductor and early music specialist John Eliot Gardiner. Under him Mallon developed an interest in performance on period instruments, leading to a distinguished career as a violinist and conductor. At Chetham’s, Mallon was involved in the choirs, singing with the award winner Chetham’s chamber choir and at Manchester Cathedral. He was a member, and rehearsal conductor, of the National Choir of Great Britain. Mallon later studied composition with Peter Maxwell Davies at Dartington College of Arts, and studied violin at the Royal Northern College of Music. While a student Mallon played in projects with the Hallé Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1989-1992 Kevin Mallon led and directed The Irish Baroque Orchestra, was concert- master of Le Concert Spirituel and Les Arts Florissants in Paris. With these groups, he recorded and performed concerts all over Europe, including Vienna, London (Wigmore Hall), Berlin, Paris (Versailles), Russia, The Baltic States, China, and Japan. In 1993 he accepted positions with the University of Toronto and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and has developed parallel career as a conductor of opera, choral and orchestral music. He now left those positions in order to pursue his conducting career.
In 1999 Kevin Mallon founded the vocal and instrumental group the Aradia Ensemble, with whom he has toured widely, and become conductor of the Toronto Chamber Orchestra. With these ensembles he has made over 50 recordings for Naxos (including a series of 20th century works), has produced two music videos and appeared on numerous film soundtrack including Yes Man- Jim Carey (2008). The Aradia Ensemble has toured extensively across Canada, to Ireland, Italy, the USA and New Zealand. From 2010 to 2013 Aradia Ensemble was the orchestra in residence at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy with Mallon conducting: George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare (2010), W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni (2011), Le nozze di Figaro (2012).
Kevin Mallon has conducted the contemporary opera company Opera Anonymous– Igor Stravinsky’s Rakes Progress (1999), and the early 19th century opera Lucas et Cecile by Canadian Joseph Quesnel (2001). With Toronto’s Opera in Concert, he has conducted G.F. Handel’s Semele (2002) and Rameau’s Castor and Pollux (2003), G.F. Handel’s Rinaldo (2004), G.F. Handel’s Tamerlano (2005) Antonio Vivaldi’s La Griselda (2006), W.A. Mozart’s Zaide (2008), Il mondo della luna, by Haydn, (2009), G.F. Handel’s Giulio Cesare (2010), Die Freunde von Salamanka by Schubert (2012) G.F. Handel’s Orlando (2103) and Hippolite et Arice of Rameau (2014). With the Toronto Operetta Theatre has conducted Wiener Blut by Johann Strauss (2006) The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár (2007) and Lehár’s Count of Luxembourg (2008).
The Gramophone and BBC magazines have featured major profiles on Mr. Mallon. He won Gramophone Editors Choice Awards for his recordings of Boyce symphonies and G.F. Handel’s Water-Music and Royal Fireworks. Further awards include a 2009 Juno nomination for a Haydn Symphonies CD.
In Ireland Kevin Mallon was appointed Artistic Director of Opera 2005, formed to celebrate Cork’s tenure as European Capital of Culture. With this company he conducted W.A. Mozart’s Figaro’s Wedding (2005), Georges Bizet’s Carmen, (2005), Weill’s Threepenny Opera (2006) and Rossini’s Barber of Seville (2006), Don Giovanni (2007), Verdi’s Ballo in Maschera (2008). The company was three times nominated for the Irish Times Theatre Award. In 2004 and 2005 he conducted several cantatas in Orchestra of St Cecilia: Bach Cantata Series in Dublin. In 2009 he undertook a contact with the Odessa Opera, Ukraine, as to conduct in Odessa, then on tour to Holland, Belgium and Spain.
Kevin Mallon’s most recent appointments are as Music Director of Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra in Ottawa (2010), as Conductor of New York’s newly formed West Side Chamber Orchestra (2011), Music Director of Orchestra Toronto (2013) and as Interim Artistic Director of Opera Lyra, Ottawa (2014).
He also fulfills a wide range of guest conducting engagements, recently including the Windsor Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia and Symphony Niagara, the Hamilton Philharmonic, Thunder Bay Symphony, Orchestra London, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Cambridge Concentus, Halifax Summer Opera Festival etc.
Kevin Mallon is an Irish fiddler and is also a composer; most recently writing music for the TV series Camelot. |
