Cameron Burns is the Second Kapellmeister of the Staatsoper Hannover where he has conducted over 100 performances since his debut in December 2015. In the 2019/20 season he will conduct Martinu’s The Greek Passion, Alcina, Nixon in China, Hamed und Sherifa (Premiere), Die Fledermaus and Hänsel und Gretel.

Cameron Burns made his conducting debut with LSO Discovery in 2012, prompting The Times to describe him as “a young conductor to watch: his is an urbane, unhistrionic manner of direction, with an impeccable technique at the service of a lucid grasp of the score”. Since then he has worked with Amsterdam’s Nieuw Ensemble, Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester Hannover, Nordwestdeustche Philharmonie (Concergebouw, Amsterdam), Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra (Dream of Gerontius; The Seasons), Salomon Orchestra (Nielsen 4; Vier letzte Lieder with Helena Dix), Haydn Chamber Orchestra (Wesendonck Lieder with Emma Bell and The Protecting Veil with Guy Johnston) and the John Wilson Orchestra. He has conducted operas for Staatsoper Hannover (A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Die Zauberflöte; Trojahn: Was ihr Wollt; Les dialogue des Carmélites; Hänsel und Gretel; L’elisir d’amore; Candide; Des Kaisers neue Kleider, usw), Opera Trionfo, Amsterdam (Britten’s Owen Wingrave) Chelsea Opera Group, London (Weber’s Euryanthe) and Zomeropera, Belgium (Don Giovanni; L’itliana in Algeri). He was mentored by Sir Jeffrey Tate, and he has also assisted Ed Spanjaard, John Wilson and Yutaka Sado.

Cameron brings to his conducting a wealth of experience with singers, having travelled the traditional route through the theatre, starting as a repetiteur and vocal coach. He studied at Mirella Freni’s Centro Universale di Bel Canto in Italy and later with a host of other singers, teachers and coaches including Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Anne Evans, Sir John Tomlinson, Dennis O’Neill, Elizabeth Connell, Dame Felicity Lott, Nelly Miriciou, Susan Bullock, Sherill Milnes, Della Jones, Antony Rolfe Johnson, Gerald Finley, Michael Chance, Laura Sarti, Janice Chapman, Nuccia Focile, Ryland Davies, Anthony Roden, Claudio Desdire, Sir Richard Armstrong, John Fisher, Martin Isepp, David Syrus, Pamela Bullock, Rupert Dussmann and Gerald Martin Moore.

He has a repertoire of over sixty operas and has prepared many world-renowned singers for roles at Metropolitan Opera, New York, Bayerische Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Cameron taught for two years at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has been invited as a guest coach on several courses including Britten Pears Young Artist Programme and Musik Theater Bavaria. In addition, he has served on the committee of the UK Wagner Society.

A Londoner by upbringing, Cameron was both an Academic and Organ Scholar at New College, Oxford University where he graduated with a starred-first in piano performance. He is also a graduate of the Solti Accademia in Castiglione, Italy, the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Snape and the National Opera Studio in London. He was a Conducting Scholar with the London Symphony Chorus (working with Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, Sir Mark Elder and Gianandrea Noseda), Chorus Master of Grange Park Opera for three seasons, Assistant Chorus Master at ENO, Chorus Master of Dorset Opera and Guest Chorus Master for Nationale Reisopera, The Netherlands.