British-Canadian conductor Henry Kennedy has recently been appointed as the first Resident Conductor of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. From September 2024, he will conduct a number of concerts and operas throughout the next two seasons. In November, Henry will conduct Tosca for the 100th Anniversary of Puccini’s death in the composer’s hometown of Lucca at the Teatro del Giglio with the Orchestra Cherubini. In March 2025, he will also conduct Tosca in the theatres at Livorno, Pisa and Ravenna.
Before Henry’s position in Canada commenced, he completed his one-year tenure as Conductor of Wroclaw Opera where he led a number of productions during the 2022/2023 season including Don Giovanni, Carmen and Les Pêcheurs de Perles. Last summer, Henry was Assistant Conductor to Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique for Berlioz’s Les Troyens.
“Both in the first movement and the finale codas 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, reviewing Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony with Resonate Symphony Orchestra, October 2021
“…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, reviewing Mozart Symphony no. 36 with Resonate Symphony Orchestra
“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, reviewing Bruckner Symphony no. 3 with Resonate Symphony Orchestra