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Haig Utidjian is a British conductor of Armenian descent. He started conducting at the age of sixteen, with the guidance and encouragement of Diego Masson, and joined the Association of British Choral Directors as an undergraduate. He was educated at the Universities of Sussex, London and Cambridge, at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he studied piano, viola and singing, and completed the Advanced Conducting Course in 1995. He was awarded the Ricordi Conducting Prize upon his graduation and was announced as the winner of the Competition for the Bob Harding Bursary for Young Conductors, at which he represented the Guildhall School amongst candidates from the other UK conservatoires. Haig also regularly attended Lothar Zagrosek's rehearsals with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, and received invaluable guidance on twentieth-century repertoire. He has also furthered his studies by private consultations with Carlo Maria Giulini in Milan, Richard Schumacher in Valsolda and Vilem Tausky in London. In October 1998 Haig was privileged to take up a graduate attachment at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, entailing intensive study of Czech repertoire supported by regular consultations with Frantisek Vajnar and Jiri Belohlavek, lessons in stylistic composition with Juraj Filas, and opportunities of conducting distinguished Czech ensembles under the auspices of the Academy, including the Prague Philharmonia and the Bohemian Chamber Orchestra (Pardubice), with whom he made his first appearance in Martinu Hall of the Lichtenstejn Palace in April this year. His work in the Czech Republic has been facilitated by his fluency in the Czech language (acquired in the space of only a few months), which has greatly enhanced his warm working relationship with Czech musicians.
Haig has conducted in venues such as Bishopsgate Hall, Conway Hall, the Music Hall and Theatre of the Guildhall School at the Barbican in London; The Chapel Royal in Brighton; Ferneham Hall in Hampshire; the St. James Arts Centre in Guernsey; and Wesley Grove in Jersey. In Cambridge he has trained student ensembles at Corpus Christi, Clare, Jesus, Pembroke, Selwyn and Robinson Colleges, and at a variety of local venues including the West Road Concert Hall and the ADC Theatre. He has developed a warm working relationship with a number of orchestral and choral organisations in England and, increasingly, further afield; in addition to his recent work with Czech orchestras, on the Continent he has also conducted the Orchestra of the Festival del Piccolo Mondo Antico in Lago di Lugano, the Belgian National Youth Orchestra in Leuven, and, most recently, the Ensemble Orchestra du Festival Albert-Roussel. He has been gaining increasing recognition as an exponent of the Austro-Germanic and French symphonic repertoire, with acclaimed Beethoven and Brahms symphony cycles to his credit; as a committed and persuasive proponent of twentieth-century music; and as a conductor in a theatrical environment, where his work is greatly enhanced by his deep love and understanding of the human voice and by his interests in movement and dance.
Haig made his debut with the Barbican Chamber Orchestra in May 1997. Positions he has held in the UK include that of Principal Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of Sussex, conductor of the Chamber Choir of Sussex University, Music Director of the Orchestra of the University of Cambridge Beethoven Society (in whose repertoire he introduced several major works from the Second Viennese School), conductor of the Cambridge Monteverdi Ensemble, and Assistant Conductor of the Havant and District Orchestral Society. Other UK orchestras he has conducted include the New Cambridge Sinfonia, the Cambridge Sinfonietta, and a variety of student orchestras such as the Imperial College Chamber Orchestra, the Pembroke Chamber Orchestra and the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked extensively with the Marie Valence Chorus and with the Choruses of the University of Cambridge Beethoven Society and Canford School, amongst others. Recent successes have included (for instance) the Monteverdi six-voice Magnificat, Mozart's ``Great'' C Minor Mass and Requiem, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Stravinsky's ``Cantata'', and the world premiere of Juan Drown's mass for a cappella double-choir.
Haig also recently accepted invitations to return to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to premiere work produced within the School's Composition Department, having already worked extensively with all of the School's main ensembles, served as assistant conductor to a number of their nationally-acclaimed opera productions (notably Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" and Poulenc's "Dialogues des Carmelites"), appeared as part of the Guildhall's Carl Flesch Centenary celebrations, on an overseas tour embracing the inaugural concert of the First Jersey International Festival, and with the Guildhall Vocal Ensemble, which he has constituted by selecting outstanding postgraduate singers from the Opera and Vocal Studies Departments. He has also conducted semi-stages performances of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, Monteverdi's Orfeo, and trained the opera choruses of the Guildhall School and of the Apollo Opera Group.
Haig takes particular pride in his work with his own professional chamber ensemble, The Ensemble Duparc, with whom he has given workshops and performances with an emphasis on the music of our own century. With The Ensemble he has appeared at the Cambridge University Faculty of Music, the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh (at the invitation of the legendary Swiss tenor Hugues Cuenod, with whom they have performed Poulenc's Bestiaire), Conway Hall and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and performed at the Maderna Festival (with the support of the publishing houses of Ricordi and Suvini Zerboni and under the auspices of the Italian Ambassador) and the Guildhall Contemporary Music Festival. His work with the Ensemble has featured music from Mozart to Messiaen, and from Bach to Birtwistle. Plans for the future include Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat, Roussel's Le Marchand de Sable qui passe... (with the complete text by Jean-Aubry), Chausson's La Legende de Sainte Cecile; Nonets by Bax, Martinu and Eisler, Octets by Francaix, Ferguson and Schwertsik; works by students from Franco Donatoni's class at the Accademia Chigiana; and the UK premiere of Peter Tahourdin's chamber opera Heloise and Abelard.
Make list of venues
amateur and student ensembles trained
choirs trained and own vocal background, incl. youthful Dartington masterclasses with Linda Hirst, Margaret Lensky, Peter Savidge, Theresa Cahill, study with Prof. Jana Jonasova
French connection, Wickens (Bernac), Cuenod, sang Chausson, Ibert, Poulenc, Milhaud, incl. premiere of Automne from the composer's recently-recovered manuscript
Czech connection
Italian connection, Chigiana, Maestro Giulini, Maestro Turchi, Maestro Donatoni, Maderna Festival, His Excellency the Italian Ambassador, Ricordi and Suvini Zerboni
linguistic accomplishments
Guildhall activities and experience of recordings, opera, contemporary music festival, and guildhall singers
international experience
outside interests
contemporary music, list of premieres and first UK performances; future plans.