Music Director

Timothy Burke

Summarise your role in 20 words

Developing, rehearsing and conducting the new operas we commission; helping Bill with Festival curation. Bringing new music to life.

What has been your favourite moment as part of the Tête à Tête team?

I think my favourite ever moment was the day we made Dart’s Love in 2013, the first piece I conducted for Tête à Tête. I met the instrumentalists from CHROMA for the first time that morning – I’d been so nervous that I wouldn’t get to work with them before the day of the performance – and then they played it as if they’d been playing it all their lives. The whole Tête à Tête team were buzzing about the theatre doing everything at once, achieving what a national opera company would take 10 days to do in 1 day. Incredible.

What’s your favourite Tête à Tête production?

If I had to pick one, it’d be The Last Seed by Na’ama Zisser. I think it is like absolutely nothing else I’ve ever heard. The way 5 unusual male voices, all clustered around alto & tenor ranges, blend and intertwine, sharing out the words in a sentence, all wreathed around by the sounds and textures of CHROMA – it was a very special piece to create.