Graeme Jenkins
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Graeme Jenkins is a British conductor active in the opera world. He is known for his strong affinity for the music of Benjamin Britten. Jenkins is currently the music director of the Dallas Opera.
Jenkins studied music at Cambridge University and conducting at the Royal College of Music. He worked with Norman Del Mar and David Willcocks.
Later, he assisted Bernard Haitink and Simon Rattle at Glyndebourne. He made his debut there in 1987 with Carmen and Capriccio and returned many times. He served as music director of the Glyndebourne Touring Opera until November 1991
Throughout his opera career, Graeme Jenkins has performed with the English National Opera and Scottish Opera. He also conducted a critically acclaimed Show Boat for Opera North. His other engagements have included performances with Geneva Opera, Canadian Opera in Toronto, Australian Opera in Sydney and at the Hong Kong Festival. A particularly close relationship developed with the Netherlands Opera over several years, productions having included Simon Boccanegra, La Traviata and Der Fliegende Holländer.
As principal guest vonductor at Cologne Opera he led new productions of Serse, Macbeth and The Love of Three Oranges.
Since the 1998-1999 season, Jenkins has been concentrating on the operas of Wagner, conducting a new production of Parsifal in Cologne and completing The Ring in Dallas.
While opera has been his primary focus, Jenkins has also been working as a orchestral conductor and has recently worked with the Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, the Minnesota Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra, the Gulbenkian and the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestras. In the UK he has worked with the London Philharmonic, Hallé, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players and Scottish Chamber orchestras.