Nicholas Jenkins
Nicholas Jenkins is a conductor and music educator.
In a career of more than 20 years he has conducted numerous operas, in particular in his role as Musical Director of the community-based New Sussex Opera and Blackheath Halls Opera companies. He has also conducted performances for Bregenz Festival, La Monnaie, Opera Holland Park, Opéra de Lyon, and Paris Opéra Comique.
As a choral specialist with two different vocal ranges of his own, Nicholas Jenkins has trained numerous leading choirs, including Choeur des Musiciens du Louvre, Dutch National Opera Chorus, ENO Chorus, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Glyndebourne Chorus, Netherlands Radio Choir, Opera Holland Park Chorus and Philharmonia Chorus. Nick learned conducting and vocal skills by studying at Trinity Laban and the GSMD, and performing as a session singer. He also conducted amateur and student choirs and orchestras including Eltham Choral Society, Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra, and the University of Greenwich Choir.
He previously worked as assistant conductor on many opera productions, assisting Sir Mark Elder, David Parry, Sir Simon Rattle, and – for a period of a decade – Marc Minkowski, projects which took him to many leading opera houses and festivals in Europe.
Since 2019 Nicholas Jenkins has taken a sabbatical from conducting in order to focus on teaching Music in inner London secondary schools. He looks forward to continuing his work in the fields of both music education and performance in the coming years, and hopes to develop further meaningful connections between the two.
Gallery
“The work showcases the Glyndebourne chorus, which was on magnificent form – a good augury for the tenure of Nicholas Jenkins, in his first season as chorus master.” Saul/Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opera Magazine, October 2018
“Star of the show, however, is not a soloist but the all-singing, all-dancing chorus, under its new master Nicholas Jenkins, excelling itself in its exuberant alleluias.” Saul/Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Daily Telegraph, July 2018
“….the chorus under its new master Nicholas Jenkins sounded luminous in its humming serenade…” Madama Butterfly/Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Telegraph, May 2018
“Nicholas Jenkins marshalled his varied choral army with customary precision while working the orchestra equally hard, never unduly relaxing Weber’s tempers or selling his exhilarating sting lines short.” Der Freichutz/Blackheath Opera, Opera Magazine, September 2017
“Nicholas Jenkins’s young choristers surpass anything I have heard in this department at Holland Park in their triumphalist Hymn to the Sun.” Iris/Opera Holland Park, Sunday Times, June 2016
“The key to Idomeneo is its head-strong, forward motion…the Musical Director Nicholas Jenkins caught that urgency, motivating a strong cast to fling themselves into Mozart’s maelstrom of private and public emotion…at root it was the range and depth of Mozart’s choruses, sung with overwhelming power and beauty by Blackheath’s huge, all-aged community forces, that imprinted this Idomeneo on heart and mind.” Idomeneo/Blackheath Halls Opera, Opera Magazine, September 2015
“Nicholas Jenkins marshalled his musical forces effectively and chose a fine quartet of leads.” Idomeneo/Blackheath Halls Opera, The Sunday Times, July 2015
“Nicholas Jenkins, conducting the St Paul’s Sinfonia, produced utterly Weberian effects of sonority, jubilant explosions of scurrying violins and his uniquely ecstatic spiritual quality in vocal climaxes.” Oberon/New Sussex Opera, Opera Now, November 2014
“The players of St Paul’s Sinfonia responded admirably to Nicholas Jenkins’s sensitive, keenly dramatic traversal. Flexible and cultivated, with plenty of direction: his was a reading worthy both of Weber and of the gamble the company had made in mounting the enterprise. I should be keen to hear more of the conductor in such and indeed other repertoire.” Oberon/New Sussex Opera, Seen and Heard, November 2014
“St Paul’s Sinfonia played with terrific verve under Nicholas Jenkins.” L’Etoile/New Sussex Opera, Telegraph, November 2013
“New Sussex Opera’s pro-am performance may be rough round the edges, but it glows with enthusiasm, lovingly conducted by Nicholas Jenkins.” Edgar/New Sussex Opera, Telegraph, October 2012
“The St Paul’s Sinfonia played with gusto, conducted by Nicholas Jenkins whose passion for the work was evident.” Edgar/New Sussex Opera, Observer, October 2012
“…this was a treat, stylishly shaped under conductor Nicholas Jenkins, whose apprenticeship with Marc Minkowski showed to great effect.” Massenet: Cendrillon/Blackheath Concert Halls, Independent on Sunday, July 2012
“Much of the credit must go to the excellent musical direction of Nicholas Jenkins, who straightway establishes excellent harmony between stage and a very cramped pit.” Gounod: Mireille/New Sussex Opera, What’s On Stage, November 2011
“Singers and players perform with ghoulish glee under the baton of Nicholas Jenkins.” Britten: The Turn of the Screw/Dartington Festival, The Times
“This was surround-sound Vaughan Williams, sympathetically conducted by Nicholas Jenkins.” Vaughan Williams: Hugh the Drover/New Sussex Opera, Independent on Sunday
“A wonderful performance of a wonderful opera, marshalled with fluid grace by Nicholas Jenkins.” Tchaikowsky: Eugene Onegin/Blackheath Halls Opera, Classical Source
“The large cast was steered through with class and finesse by young conductor Nicholas Jenkins – just the sort of talent a small, ambitious company needs to help it progress.” Offenbach: Die Rheinnixen/New Sussex Opera, Opera Now
“In Nicholas Jenkins we have a future Furtwängler, rather than a Toscanini. Good luck to him.” Brahms: Symphony No 3/Helios Orchestra, Oxford Times
Opera Repertoire
| COMPOSER | OPERA | ROLE |
|---|---|---|
| Barber | Vanessa | Assistant Conductor |
| Bellini | Norma | Chorus Master |
| Berlioz | Benvenuto Cellini | Chorus Master |
| Bizet | Carmen | Conductor |
| Britten | Noye’s Fludde | Conductor |
| Britten | The Turn of the Screw | Conductor |
| Chabrier | L’Étoile | Conductor |
| Dean (Brett) | Hamlet | Chorus Master |
| Donizetti | L’elisir d’amore | Conductor |
| Dove | Tobias and the Angel | Conductor |
| Gluck | Armide | Chorus Master |
| Gounod | Roméo et Juliette | Assistant Conductor |
| Gounod | Mireille | Conductor |
| Handel | Alcina | Assistant Conductor |
| Handel | Saul | Chorus Master |
| Mascagni | Iris | Chorus Master |
| Massenet | Cendrillon | Conductor |
| Massenet | Don Quichotte | Conductor |
| Massenet | Thaïs | Chorus Master |
| Meyerbeer | Les Huguenots | Assistant Conductor |
| Mozart | Così fan tutte | Conductor |
| Mozart | Idomeneo | Conductor |
| Mozart | Die Entführung aus dem Serail | Assistant Conductor |
| Mozart | Le Nozze di Figaro | Chorus Master |
| Mozart | Die Zauberflöte | Chorus Master |
| Offenbach | Les Contes d’Hoffmann | Assistant Conductor |
| Offenbach | L’Ile de Tulipatan | Conductor |
| Offenbach | Fantasio | Assistant Conductor |
| Offenbach | Mesdames de la Halle | Conductor |
| Offenbach | Die Rheinnixen | Conductor |
| Offenbach | Vert-Vert | Assistant Conductor |
| Puccini | Edgar (4 Act Version) | Conductor |
| Puccini | Madama Butterfly | Chorus Master |
| Puccini | Manon Lescaut | Chorus Master |
| Puccini | La Rondine | Conductor |
| Puccini | Tosca | Assistant Conductor |
| Purcell | Dido and Aeneas | Conductor |
| Rameau | Platée | Assistant Conductor |
| Rossini | Il barbiere di Siviglia | Chorus Master |
| Rossini | La Cenerentola | Assistant Conductor |
| Rossini | Le Comte Ory | Conductor |
| Stravinsky | The Rake's Progress | Assistant Conductor |
| Strauss (Johann) | Die Fledermaus | Chorus Master |
| Strauss (Richard) | Der Rosenkavalier | Assistant Conductor |
| Tchaikovsky | Mazeppa | Chorus Master |
| Tchaikovsky | Eugene Onegin | Conductor |
| Thomas | Mignon | Conductor |
| Vaughan Williams | Hugh the Drover | Conductor |
| Vaughan Williams | The Poisoned Kiss | Conductor |
| Verdi | Aida | Chorus Master |
| Verdi | Macbeth | Conductor |
| Verdi | Nabucco | Conductor |
| Verdi | La Traviata | Assistant Conductor |
| Verdi | Il Trovatore | Assistant Conductor |
| Wagner | Die Feen | Assistant Conductor |
| Weber | Der Freischütz | Conductor |
| Weber | Oberon | Conductor |
| Weill | Der Jasager | Conductor |
| Weill | The Seven Deadly Sins | Conductor |
