Equally at home on the concert stage as in the pit, conductor and pianist Chris Hopkins works on a wide range of projects. He is a frequent face at English National Opera, recently conducting the company’s first ever production of The Yeomen of the Guard and this season conducting Cal McCrystal’s hit production of Iolanthe. He has conducted more than sixty shows at the London Coliseum, including the new Olivier Award-nominated production of HMS Pinafore, La boheme, The Magic Flute, The Mikado, and more. He recently made his debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Grange Park opera (including conducting a new 5* production of Werther at Grange Park Opera with Tony Award-winning director John Doyle), and this season makes debuts with various other companies including at Garsington Opera, conducting a new Christopher Alden production of Verdi’s Un giorno di regno.
Chris is principal conductor of English Sinfonia and has worked with Opera de Paris, the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne Opera, on record with English Chamber Orchestra, and other projects with Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Crash Ensemble, London Mozart Players, Birdgang Ltd, Opera Holland Park, Welsh National Opera, NI Opera, appearing at festivals including Aldeburgh, Presteigne, Cubitt Sessions, New Paths, and Latitude. His work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4, BBC 1, 2 and 4, Scala and Classic FM.
A long-term advocate for British music, Chris was the first postgraduate from the Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth (CHOMBEC) before continuing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Leverhulme and Elton John scholarships. He has premiered works by composers including Colin Matthews, Ruth Gipps, Nicholas Korth, David Matthews, Rob Keeley, Thomas Hyde, Detlev Glanert, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Gilad Hochman, and the Pet Shop Boys. He continues into a thirteenth season as Musical Director of Orchestra of the City.
As a pianist, Chris has played for audiences around the world, working with orchestras in a range of concertos, including Brahms, Mozart, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven (complete) Shostakovich and Gershwin; this season he tackles Mozart 10, 15, 19, 22, 23 and 24, Rachmaninoff 2, Beethoven 4 and Shostakovich 2. He is a writer for Pretty Decent Music and recently released his first album of piano miniatures: Impressions 1
Chris was honoured in 2013 to be made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
“We were finally seeing G&S the way it is meant to be seen: virtuoso musical comedy, bursting with colour and drenched in laughter from a capacity crowd”
“Musically, things are in excellent hands. Chris Hopkins conducts Sullivan’s score with finesse ”
“In the pit, Christopher Hopkins drew splendid playing from The Gascoigne Orchestra, coaxing out Massenet’s rich colouring and, in explosive climaxes, mirroring the emotional agitation playing above them on-stage. In short, both playing and singing are unmissable, with Werther’s dramatic strengths fully realised.”
“HMS Pinafore rolls along beautifully under conductor Chris Hopkins’ more-than-able steering from a sentimental-brisk Overture to the final happy chorus (the late Charles Mackerras would have approved), and hits all its marks deftly.”
“Chris Hopkins conducts the orchestra with the energy that you would expect on the last night of the proms… upbeat, punchy, knee bobbing and seamlessly blending with the vocals”
“In the pit, Chris Hopkins elicits a beautifully sumptuous and balanced sound from the orchestra, with the consequence that, even at over thirty years of age, Jonathan Miller’s The Mikado can still make for a joyous and uplifting evening when executed as well as it is here.”
“Medcalf and his company hit every beat with clarity and charm, while Chris Hopkins, playing Ravel’s score at the piano ... fills each passing moment with lightly worn sensuality and precision tooled wit.”
“suave and sensitive”
“Musically it’s extremely fine... in place of Ravel’s ravishing orchestration, we have an expertly played transcription for piano (Chris Hopkins, the film’s music director)”
“The music this time around is, if anything, better than ever. Conductor Chris Hopkins is back to bring real authority to the music *****”
“In Chris Hopkins hands the music sparkled. Hopkins speeds were always apposite, the music never dragged or sagged, yet filled the Coliseum. A real treat. Many column inches have inevitably been devoted to ENO’s opening production of the season, the revival of David Alden’s striking vision of Britten’s Peter Grimes. Iolanthe could not be more of a contrast, but it is a testament to the company’s strength (and courage in adversity) that this revival full of crisp detail, and wonderfully engaging with the cast’s sheer enjoyment shining out”
“Chris Hopkins, the ENO’s G&S specialist marshalls the considerable forces of the house band with aplomb. He handles the score, with its nods to Mendelsohn and Wagner, with perfect pacing and dynamic control and the pastoral melodic overture with its glorious flute triplets is simply ravishing”
“Gianni Schicchi - the film of Puccini’s comedy is a musical miracle…
The music director Chris Hopkins performs virtuosic miracles
”
“Musically it’s very fine. Hopkins keeps things elegant, buoyant and witty.”
“Musically, this Pinafore is most definitely all hit. Chris Hopkins gives the score a bright and breezy workout but is also alert to its potential nuances with a subtle swell here and a romantic lilt there. The ENO Chorus is excellent as well, singing with outstanding clarity and responding with admirable discipline to the challenges thrown at them by McCrystal and by Lizzi Gee’s witty choreography.”
“This is a super show that looks good, sounds good and by golly will do you good”
“The accompaniment is largely just piano, played swooningly, with sufficient Spanish dash by Chris Hopkins that it sounds as if this chamber work, just 50 minutes long, might have been written for that instrument alone.”
“Cooked to perfection...
This production of Jules Massenet’s Werther, directed by John Doyle, delivers a satisfying serving of full-on Romanticism, cooked to perfection thanks to superb singing and excellent playing by the Gascoigne Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Hopkins. *****”
“The choral singing was bold and colour-saturated; the orchestra, under Chris Hopkins, caught the light and shade of Sullivan’s writing – violins glinting in the light while bassoon and clarinet countermelodies sang and sighed within the texture… this was as close to the Yeomen of my dreams as I expect I shall ever see.”
“faultlessly conducted by the excellent Chris Hopkins”
“Both fizz and refinement characterise Chris Hopkins’ reading of the score”
“Hopkins does an equally fine job of traversing the show’s varied musical terrain, which veers from the quasi-Grand Opera of the Act One finale—think “Don Carlos,” but more dour—to the lighter Bel Canto territory of arias and music-hall patter. Whatever the musical weather, the textures remain crisp and well-crafted and the music is treated with seriousness and care. ”
“Chris Hopkins conducts with admirable concentration, Arthur Sullivan’s timeless melodies as delightful as ever, thrillingly filling the vast auditorium with a full orchestration.”
“Chris Hopkins conducts a large cast idiomatically, even though the work includes several idioms. [absolutely no idea what this means]”
“an excellent chamber orchestra under the baton of the admirable music director Chris Hopkins”