by Robert Thicknesse
Being involved in the birth of one successful company is not bad; three is even better. The 39-year-old conductor Nicholas Chalmers, aside from his success as the first (and so far only) artistic director at Nevill Holt Opera, has been instrumental in taking Northern Ireland Opera from a standing start to its highly respected place among the UK’s national companies, and before that, with his long-term artistic collaborator Oliver Mears, he founded Second Movement, an innovative little company that is still going strong.
All these companies (and indeed his other role as music director of St Jude-on-the-Hill in north London, where inter alia he tutors three organ scholars from Henrietta Barnett School) are based on a strong commitment to encouraging young talent, which is absolutely tied up with Chalmers’ vocation as a full-time conductor and a cornerstone of the founding principles behind Nevill Holt Opera. His early career took him to Westminster Abbey where he was director of music at the Choir School; he went on to be assistant chorus master at ENO. ‘It’s an idealistic thing more than political,’ he says. ‘If music and opera are to have a proper future and not fade into irrelevance, people like me need to do something about it. For me the rewards of being at the forefront of providing opportunities for young musicians are immense.’