Ivan Ludlow

The London-born baritone Ivan Ludlow has established himself on leading European stages as an outstanding opera singer. He performs regularly at opera houses such as La Monnaie in Brussels, the Paris Opéra, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Hamburg State Opera, the Opéra de Lyon and the Zurich Opera House. He made his Salzburg Festival debut in 2012 as Agravain in Birtwistle’s Gawain.

Ivan Ludlow’s repertory includes classic roles such as Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Escamillo, Marcello and Danilo, and he has also received particular recognition for his interpretation of contemporary works. Recent highlights have included Antiochus in the world premiere of Michael Jarrell’s Bérénice at the Paris Opéra, appearances in the world premiere of Heinz Holliger’s Lunea in Zurich and in Francesco Filidei’s Giordano Bruno at its Milan premiere and later in Porto and Paris, King Edward II in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence in Zurich and L’Homme in the world premiere of Sebastian Rivas’s Otages in Lyon.

As a concert singer, Ivan Ludlow has performed with prestigious orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern and the Remix Ensemble. He is a founding member of the London Bridge Ensemble and gives — often with Daniel Tong as his partner at the piano — song recitals throughout Europe and in the USA. His staged recital programme Wanderer, post scriptum, in which he and his wife, the pianist Kalina Georgieva, interpret works by Rihm, Pesson, Eisler, Wagner and The Doors, received its world premiere at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, before being shown at several European festivals and at other performance venues.

His discography includes DVDs of Berg’s Lulu from La Monnaie (in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s production) and Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias from the Opéra de Lyon (in Macha Makeïeff’s production), along with CD recordings of Poulenc songs with Graham Johnson (as part of the box set Poulenc: The Complete Songs), Holliger’s Lunea, Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson (in the version with piano quintet), Schumann’s Liederkreis op. 24, songs by Frank Bridge and Henrik Hellstenius’s opera Ophelia: death by water singing.

Ivan Ludlow also works as an artistic director, consultant and artistic programmer. He has directed an opera festival in Portugal, been manager of chamber music series in the UK and in Belgium, designed an artistic residency in Singapore and developed a new music education platform in the Middle East. His company, Long Play Lab, advises institutions and governments on talent and network development, cultural strategy and programming. He co-founded New Studios, an innovative film production company that uses the power and beauty of the performing arts to tell compelling stories in television series and feature films.