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The American-Scottish conductor and vocal coach, Tim Ribchester, was born in Denver, Colorado then raised near Edinburgh, Scotland, and he is dual US/UK citizen. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music (1st Class Honours and Gibbs Prize) from Oxford University, Brasenose College (1997-2000); his Master of Studies degree in Music History from Oxford University, Brasenose College (2000-2002); PhD in Music History from University of Pennsylvania (2002-2009). He also trained at the Royal College of Music in London, La Schola Cantorum in Paris (Certificate of High Distinction in Piano and Counterpoint, 2003), and the Advanced Conducting Academy in Bacau, Romania, in addition to conducting master-classes with several distinguished pedagogues in the USA and apprenticeships as assistant to Christofer Macatsoris and Christopher Larkin. Following intensive studies of tango performance practice in Buenos Aires he has led and collaborated on tango ensemble projects with the genre’s leading musicians on three continents, including his own acclaimed arrangements of Piazzolla’s works.
Acclaimed for his “passionate commitment to the composer and score...” “elegant sense of shape...” “perfected technique [and] a personal aesthetic vision,” Tim Ribchester is expanding an international presence as an inspiring, versatile musical leader, particularly in the field of Baroque interpretation.
Formerly repetiteur at the Academy of Vocal Arts (December 2010-May 2015) and Opera Philadelphia (JAnuary 2011-April 2015), Tim Ribchester has conducted the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, Baltimore and Boulder Chamber Orchestras, the Academy of Vocal Arts Chorus, and Opera Philadelphia Chorus, as well as completing a two-season contract as Music Director of Delaware County Symphony in Aston, Pennsylvania (2013-May 2015) and frequently guest conducting for the city’s Concert Operetta Theater.
In Boston Tim Ribchester has directed the music of composers Joseph Summer and Mary Bichner on operatic and chamber music premieres and recordings for Albany Records and Navona Records, including collaboration with the Ulysses Quartet. Recent engagements include debuts with the Bacau Philharmonic in Romania and the Vidin Sinfonietta in Bulgaria, Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Gidon Saks’ staging for the Delphi Stummfilmkino Berlin, cover conducting and assistance Tim Myers in productions of Das Rheingold and Eugene Onegin at North Carolina Opera (January-September 2016), and an ongoing residency as Coach/Conductor in Residence at Cape Town Opera, South Africa (2018-2021), where in 2019 he led the Young Artist Program tour of Germany and directed a subscription concert of George Frideric Handel's’s Italian vocal duets. In 2021 he prepared the cast of Cape Town Opera’s Georges Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles while continuing his mentorship of the company’s young artists.
Engaged pre-pandemic as recitative and continuo harpsichordist under Sir Simon Rattle at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin (2020-2021), Tim Ribchester was invited recently to join the house’s musical staff as Baroque repertoire coach and assistant conductor for the 2021-2022 season. In addition to assisting Simon Rattle and the Freiburger Barockorchester on Hippolyte et Aricie he worked closely with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin under Christophe Rousset and Christopher Moulds on Orfeo ed Euridice (2021) and the celebrated Sasha Waltz production of Dido and Aeneas, and prepared Ottavio Dantone’s cast for Gluck’s Le Cinesi with Accademia Bizantina (2021). 2022 included his Athens debut with Armonia Atenea conducting an exclusive televised concert for Parnassus Arts, leading the continuo for Staatskapelle Berlin's J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046-1051) cycle under András Schiff, and for Cavalli’s L’Ormindo with Ensemble Mattiacis at Staatstheater Wiesbaden; the Goethe-Institut produced African premiere of Cavalli’s L’Ormindo at the Theater Mohammed V in Rabat, Morocco; and extensive duties as cast coach and rehearsal/cover conductor for L’incoronazione di Poppea at Staatsoper Unter den Linden. He has assisted and prepared casts for Sir Simon Rattle and the Freiburger Barockorchester (Hippolyte et Aricie), the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin under Christophe Rousset, Christopher Moulds, and Jean-Christophe Spinosi (Orfeo ed Euridice, Dido and Aeneas, L’incoronazione di Poppea); Ottavio Dantone with Accademia Bizantina (Le Cinesi); and René Jacobs (Il Giustino).
At the Trentino Music Festival, Italy, he has conducted all of the Baroque operatic and concert repertoire since June 2015, including fully staged productions of George Frideric Handel's Rinaldo and Alcina, L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Dido and Aeneas in collaboration with stage directors David Gately and Greg Eldridge. His original orchestration of L’incoronazione di Poppea, for an orchestra of sixteen solo players based on study of the opera’s manuscripts and existing performing editions, was workshopped in Trentino in 2022, with three scenes live-streamed by Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center in April 2021, and a Neustart Kultur grant awarded by the Deutscher Musikrat to video scenes from the edition in December 2022.
Tim Ribchester is currently based in Berlin where he appears with I Porporini, Opus XX, the Staatskapelle Berlin and its Baroque ensembles as harpsichordist, and with the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Children’s Concert program as pianist, as well as maintaining a private vocal coaching studio with many high-profile international clients, and giving online master-classes for organizations including the Premiere Opera Vocal Arts Institute and the Tanglewood Institute. His recital collaborators have included Julianne Baird, Ian Bostridge, Paquito D’Rivera, Pedro Giraudo, Johannes Held, and Ricardo Morales, and he is a featured soloist on the soundtrack of Park Chan-Wook’s critically acclaimed 2016 feature film The Handmaiden, and in duo with Cassia Harvey on the album "The Russian Cello", as well as contributing song selections on Navona Records’ recent album “Who is Sylvia?”.
Tim Ribchester has spent the past seasons assisting, cover conducting, and playing continuo cembalo for some of the most distinguished living conductors and casts of singers in Vienna, Munich, and his home city of Berlin, where he is employed by both the Staatsoper Under den Linden and Deutsche Oper Berlin as a specialist vocal coach and regular guest with the houses’ orchestral ensembles. His regular collaboration with Sir Simon Rattle during this time culminated in a personal invitation to record the recitatives and orchestral cembalo continuo on Simon Rattle’s forthcoming recording of W.A. Mozart's Idomeneo with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester in Munich (BR-Klassik). Other recent engagements haveincluded solo fortepiano continuo in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with Konzerthaus-Orchester Berlin and Joana Mallwitz (Deutsche Grammophon); 1st cembalo and cover conductor for Stefan Herheim’s new production of Theodora at Theater an der Wien at the invitation of Bejun Mehta (Naxos DVD); Director of Vocal Recitals and Audition Repertoire at the Trentino Music Festival; organ continuo for J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 under Alessandro De Marchi at Deutsche Oper Berlin; and invitations to perform with groups such as Staatskapelle Berlin, Camerata Salzburg (W.A. Mozart's Il re pastore with Rolando Villazón, Deutsche Grammophon), Deutsche Oper Berlin (G.F. Handel's Giulio Cesare), Il Concerto Virtuoso, La Folia Barockorchester, I Porporini, and festivals including Bachtage Rostock, Oranienburger Schlosskonzerte, and the Maifestspiele Wiesbaden.
March 2026 saw his debut with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Opernstudio, preparing and leading a concert of vocal duets by Steffani and G.F. Handel's. In spring of 2025 he gave the US conservatory premiere of his orchestration of L’incoronazione di Poppea at the New England Conservatory in Boston, and will give the world professional premiere with Opera Box Hong Kong in January 2027. In summer 2024 he was appointed Music Director of the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, conducting six performances of W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.
In addition to a private vocal coaching studio with many high-profile international clients, Tim Ribchester's Berlin portfolio includes the Berlin Philharmonic’s Children’s Concert program as pianist, as well as online master-classes for organizations including the Premiere Opera Vocal Arts Institute and the Tanglewood Institute. His recital collaborators have included Pumeza Matshikiza, Julianne Baird, Helen Charlston, Ian Bostridge, Paquito D’Rivera, Pedro Giraudo, Johannes Held, and Ricardo Morales, and he is a featured soloist on the soundtrack of Park Chan-Wook’s critically acclaimed 2016 feature film The Handmaiden, and in duo with Cassia Harvey on the album The Russian Cello, as well as contributing song selections on Navona Records’ recent album “Who is Sylvia?”. He was invited by Save Venice, Inc. in 2022 to curate and perform a program of Venetian sacred music in the Basilica dei Frari for the 50th Anniversary Gala, celebrating the four-year restoration of Titian’s Assunta painting. |
