Laurence Cummings (born 1968, Birmingham), MA (Oxon), ARCM, FRCO, HonRAM is a British harpsichordist, organist, and conductor. He is noted as a conductor of the music of Handel.

Education

Cummings was educated at Solihull School, Christ Church, Oxford and the Royal College of Music. His teachers have included Jill Severs.

Career

Cummings has played harpsichord and organ continuo with many leading period instrument groups, including Les Arts Florissants, The Sixteen Choir, Gabrieli Consort and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Cummings was Head of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music (from 1997-2012), is Musical Director of the London Handel Orchestra and the London Handel Festival^[1] (since 1999), Musical Director of the Tilford Bach Society, a founding member of the London Handel Players, and a Trustee of the Handel House Museum. In September 2011, he became the artistic director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival.^[2] He has also conducted at English National Opera and Glyndebourne.

Recordings

Cummings has recorded commercially as both an instrumentalist and a conductor.^[3] His recordings as a conductor have included the first recording of Handel’s newly discovered Gloria with soloist Emma Kirkby and the Royal Academy of Music Baroque Orchestra. He has also made recordings of keyboard works of Louis and François Couperin, and Handel.^[4]

References