PeterWhelan

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Conductor & Harpsichord
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News

  • 18 March 2024

    Peter Whelan debuts with Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists on tour in Europe

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  • 11 November 2022

    Peter Whelan appointed Curator for Early Music for Norwegian Wind Ensemble

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  • 13 April 2022

    Askonas Holt artists triumph at 2022 Olivier Awards

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Press

  • Handel's 'Israel in Egypt' with Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra

    Palau de la Música Catalana, Philharmonie Luxembourg, St Martin in the Fields and Elbphilharmonie
    Mar 2024 - Mar 2024

    • An extremely effective reading with a sharpness that Whelan molded exquisitely.

    • Peter Whelan's direction played a crucial role, ensuring perfect harmony between choir and orchestra and intensifying the spiritual experience of the work. His mastery in balancing moments of great expression and those of intimate reflection captured the emotional and spiritual essence of "Israel in Egypt.

    • Nothing can be criticized of the detailed direction of the "substitute" Peter Whelan, always dynamic, brilliant and with absolute precision.

    • A thrilling performance of Handel's Oratorio - a sense of joy and release vividly conveyed under Peter Whelan's direction.

    • ★★★★★ This vivid choral work could hardly have sounded more exhilarating. Directing from the keyboard, he was mostly on his feet, all but dancing from start to finish. The orchestral playing was buoyant as well as sensitive, the choral work dazzling...Versatile is an inadequate description for this multitalented, Irish-born musician. affect with a pulsating energy and intensity that gave goosebumps.

    • The Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists under the direction of Peter Whelan overwhelmed the audience at the Elbphilharmonie... He wants to touch and overwhelm. And he succeeds, unleashing a stunning intensity. It's hard to bring this music, which is almost three hundred years old, to life in a more exciting, modern and rousing way.

    • ★★★★★ With shimmering gestures, Whelan connected with his musicians, teasing out every theatrical affect with a pulsating energy and intensity that gave goosebumps.

  • Gluck: Orpheus and Eurydice - San Francisco Opera

    San Fancisco Opera
    Dec 2023

    • Overseeing the performance was Irish conductor Peter Whelan, an early-music specialist whose first appearance in San Francisco revealed an artist of delicate but unmistakable mastery.

  • Bajazet, Vivaldi - Irish National Opera

    Royal Opera House
    Jan 2022

    • How three hours flew by under the hands and harpsichord of conductor Peter Whelan, leading a spry Irish Baroque Orchestra. It’s a truism to point out that the pit matters so much for the tension and energy of any production, but seldom do we get to see (and hear) such an intense interlocking of dramatic and musical energies between stage and orchestra.

  • Bajazaet, Vivaldi - Irish National Opera

    Royal Opera House
    Jan 2022

    • Everything is considerably helped by the incisive sounds of the Irish Baroque Ensemble, directed from the harpsichord by Peter Whelan — one of those magicians who seem able to exert total control using little more than enthusiasm and moving the tips of his ears.

  • Haydn and Mozart - BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

    St Mary's Parish Church Haddington
    Sep 2021

    • It was very ably conducted by Peter Whelan, a fine Irish conductor who plays piano and bassoon as well as conducting and is a specialist in Baroque music. He was certainly very much at home in the ‘sweet sections’ of the concert, namely the opening and closing symphonies of the programme by Haydn and Mozart.