Henry Kennedy is a young British-Canadian conductor who has established strong credentials in the opera house and concert hall in Europe and North America.
At the start of the 2024-25 season he inaugurated the role of Resident Conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Over his two-year residency in the Canadian capital he will build further on the experience he gained during his 2022-23 season at the Wrocław Opera in Poland. On November 29th 2024, the centenary of Puccini’s death, he conducted a new production of Tosca in Lucca, the composer’s birthplace in Tuscany. Further performances follow in March 2025 in the cities of Livorno, Pisa and Ravenna.
Founder of London’s Resonate Symphony Orchestra, in recent seasons Henry has also conducted in Italy, Poland and Romania and acted as assistant conductor to Bassem Akiki, Marin Alsop, Sir Mark Elder, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Edward Gardner, Hannu Lintu, Sir Simon Rattle, Jukka Pekka Saraste, Thomas Søndergård and John Wilson, working with such ensembles as the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Henry is an alumnus of the Royal Academy of Music. Among the mentors who have made a crucial contribution to his development as a conductor are Riccardo Muti, Christian Thielemann, Colin Metters, Christopher Seaman and David Zinman.
“Henry Kennedy should stand at the threshold of a successful, even perhaps a glittering career, and those at Smith Square on 15th June 2018 should one day be lucky enough to boast of being there.“
Music Club of London. Bruckner Symphony no. 3, Resonate Symphony Orchestra
“… The conductor showed a real mastery of pacing and measured crescendo. There was an underlying calm steady beat, a sensitive layering of crescendo, a sense of inexorable progress to the visionary destination. Getting these glorious perorations right is another essential to a great Bruckner performance, and Henry Kennedy knows how to do it.”
Ken Ward, Bruckner Journal. Bruckner Symphony no. 4, Resonate Symphony Orchestra
“…It had immediately established the credentials not only of this fine orchestra but above all of a conductor with such fluid expressive movements who could immediately convey his overall vision to his fellow colleagues. It is rare to see such naturally expressive movements that can convey so clearly the shape and style of the mature Mozart.“
Christopher Axworthy Music Commentary. Mozart Symphony No 36, Resonate Symphony Orchestra