No musical background is necessary. 

Booking has now closed for private and conducting lessons. Do also check out Behind the Beat, a conducting demonstration with Matthew Kofi Waldren, Dane Lam and Lada Valesova, which will be live on our YouTube and Facebook channels at 11am tomorrow. 

We will email you to let you know whether you have been successful as soon as possible. If you haven’t heard from us by 22 May, please email box.office@operahollandpark.com.

These sessions are part of the Virtual Open Day on Saturday 23 May. Click here to see the full schedule of activities on offer. 

 

Matthew Kofi Waldren

Matthew studied at the Royal College of Music‚ Guildhall School of Music and Drama‚ and read music at Fitzwilliam College‚ Cambridge. A former OHP Young Artist, he held the ENO Mackerras Fellowship 2016-18‚ and was a ‘Newcomer’ nominee in the 2017 International Opera Awards. For Opera Holland Park, he has conducted Fantastic Mr Fox (2012), Les pêcheurs de perles (2013), Il barbiere di Siviglia (2014), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017) Lakmé (2015), La bohème (2016), La rondine (2017), La traviata (2018) and Un ballo in maschera (2019). Recent engagements have included work with the Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House‚ ENO‚ Opera North, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Scottish Opera.

 

Dane Lam

Australian-Chinese conductor Dane Lam trained at The Juilliard School, the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Queensland. Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of China’s Xi’an Symphony Orchestra since 2014, he is a former OHP Young Artist. For Opera Holland Park, Dane has conducted La Cenerentola (2016), Don Giovanni (2017), Così fan tutte (2018) and L’arlesiana (2019). Since his debut with the Sydney Symphony he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Queensland, Dunedin, Canberra, West Australia, Beijing and Shandong, as well as Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Het Residentie Orkest, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Opera Queensland, Scottish Opera and Opera Australia.

 

Lada Valešová

Lada began her musical training at the age of six in Moscow, continuing her studies at Prague Music Academy, Prague Music Conservatoire, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Acclaimed for her work as music director of Ivo van Hove’s production of Janácek’s Diary of One Who Disappeared, she balances a portfolio career as pianist, curator, vocal and language coach and conductor. For Opera Holland Park, she was assistant conductor to Sian Edwards in Iolanta (2019). Recent recordings include Arion: The Voyage of the Slavic Song with soprano Natalya Romaniw. As vocal and language coach, she has worked for the Royal Opera, London, Kungliga Operan, Stockholm, Staatsoper Hamburg, Norwegian National Opera, Oslo, New Zealand Opera, Opera Holland Park, Garsington Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera.