Artistic Director: Terry John Bates
Terry studied Fine Arts, danced with the Royal Opera Ballet, Zurich Opera House, Munich Opera House. For his choreography on Brian Friel's play ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and he was nominated for an ‘Olivier Award’ for the Royal National Theatre production in London and a ‘Tony Award ‘for the same play on Broadway, New York. He choreographed the award winning dance piece ‘T-Dance’ for BBC2 Dance series ‘Dance for the Camera’. His worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company on productions with Sir Peter Hall, Sam Mendez, Stephen Poliakoff, Greg Doran. Michael Bogdanov. Abbey Theatre and Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland,’, West Yorkshire Playhouse, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘Gypsy’, Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, ‘Ring round the Moon’ and Carousel’, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, ‘My Fair Lady’ and Sound of Music’also productions in London’s West End Theatres. Worked with Opera North, ‘The Bartered Bride, ‘Cav and Pag’, Scottish Opera, Elisir d’Amore, Die Fledermaus’. Choreographed for The English National Opera on Sir Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed production of ‘Carmen’, ‘The Marriage of Figaro’. ‘Don Giovanni’, ‘La traviata’. Other ENO productions include ‘Rusalka’, Carmen, ‘Königskinder’, ‘Toussaint’; director David Pountney. ‘Die Meistersingers’, ‘Parsifal’, ‘Pirates of Penzance’ directed by Elijah Moshinsky. Metropolitan Opera New York, ‘Marriage of Figaro’, director Sir Jonathan Miller. ‘The Beggar's Opera’ Wilton’s Music Hall. Assistant director to Jonathan Miller on ‘La traviata’, in Oviedo, [Spain] Glimmerglass Opera Festival,Vilnius,[Lithuania]. ‘Don Giovanni’ in Valencia. ‘La Forza del Destino’ directed by Jean-Claude Auvrey, Paris Opera, Bastille and Liceu Opera. Barcelona, Valencia, La Coruna, Orviedo, Spain. Florence, Italy, Lausanne, Luzern, Switzerland, Vienna State Opera). ‘Giovanna d’arco’, ‘Alzira’, [Verdi] Buxton Opera Festival, Gounod’s ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ for Korean National Opera, Seoul, directed by Elijah Moshinsky.
Devised and directed ‘Tango in the City’, ‘a tango show’ script written by Fay Weldon and was performed at Sadler’s Wells Theatre [Lillian Baylis Theatre]then a UK tour. Directed ‘Carmen’,’ Rigoletto’, ‘Elixir of Love’, ‘Die Fledermaus’ for The European Chamber Opera. The Merry Widow’ and ‘Madam Butterfly’ for American Artists USA Tour. Kentish Opera, UK. ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’, ‘Die Fledermaus’, ‘The Merry Widow’, ‘Macbeth, CAV and PAG. ‘Carmen’, ‘Dido and Aeneas’.
Recently formed ‘Kent Chamber Opera’ which had its inaugural performance of Carmen at the Canterbury Festival in the autumn of 2021, to much acclaim and the company has now been invited to many interested theatres and venues.

Musical Director: Alasdair Nicolson

An award-winning composer, conductor and festival director. He is regarded as one of Scotland’s finest musicians of his generation. Nicolson was brought up on the Isle of Skye and studied at Edinburgh University before spending much of his early career in theatre and opera as repetiteur and musical director. In 1993 his music was awarded the IBM Composers’ Prize and this signalled the beginning of a busy career with commissions and performances all over the world. Whilst a composing career forms part of his work, he has always continued as a performing musician and, over the last twenty years, has added festival director to his many talents.
He was for a time on the music staff of the Opera de Monte Carlo and worked there on co-productions with Glyndebourne and the Vienna Volksoper amongst others. He has conducted operas ranging from The Rake’s Progress by Stravinsky to Mozart’s Magic Flute ; Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld to premieres of new works. On the concert platform he has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, City of London Sinfonia amongst others and he established his own ensemble The Assembly Project in 2013.

As a composer he has written for the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles and opera companies including: English National Opera, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Trondheim Soloists, the BBC Singers, the Nash Ensemble, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and many others. He was for five years Composer in Association with the City of London Sinfonia for which he created the opera ICE premiered in the Great Hall of the People’s Palace in London. His compositional interests encompass many collaborations with other artforms but particularly with writers, he has worked with Janice Galloway, Jon Fosse, Alasdair Gray, Fay Weldon, Charles Causley, John Gallas and many others.

Nicolson is well-known as a creative producer and has been Festival Director for St Magnus International Festival, a multi-arts Festival in the Orkney Islands, for the last ten years and was previously Artistic Director of Bath International Music Festival following in the footsteps of Yehudi Menuhin and Michael Tippett. He is also deeply committed to bringing new work to new audiences and creating opportunities for arts education and has presented television programmes about composing and written two books introducing techniques to young people.

Head Of Music: Helen Crayford

Helen was born in Broadstairs, making her debut as a cornet-player at the Winter Gardens, Margate at the age of three. At the age of eight, she won a scholarship to study piano and trumpet on the Junior Exhibition Scheme at the Guildhall School of Music in London. Following undergraduate studies at Cambridge, she spent two years at the Royal College of Music, before winning a French Government Scholarship to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Once back in London, she was invited to join the first all-female Brass Quintet, the Gallina, which was the first brass group to win the Royal Overseas League Ensemble Prize in 1977.
Helen gradually became more in demand as a pianist, firstly in ensembles such as Matrix, Aquarius and the Britten Sinfonia. Having worked for the newly-formed Opera 80 as a trumpeter, she was soon invited to become full-time repetiteur . This led to regular work with Garsington Opera, followed by ENO Baylis Programme and the Royal Opera House. Having gained a particular reputation for coaching contemporary opera, Helen was also kept busy at Almeida Opera, Music Theatre Wales, Geneva Opera and Staatsoper Berlin. She was assistant conductor for Mark-Antony Turnage’s “Greek” for its premiere in Munich and subsequent performances at ENO.
Alongside her opera work, Helen has been busy as an orchestral keyboard player with the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Concert Orchestra. She has frequently accompanied the BBC Singers and Symphony Chorus, and played for numerous soloists’ rehearsals with conductors such as Georg Solti, Charles Mackerras, and Edward Gardner.
Since moving back to Kent, she was hoping for a quiet life coaching the occasional singer at home. However, she was invited to join the newly-formed Kentish Piano Trio, plus other chamber ensembles whose members, by happy coincidence, now play in the ensemble for Kent Chamber Opera !

Brian Kealy

Nichola Johnson

Paul Richardson

Andrew Waltham