MALLON, KEVIN

Conductor Kevin Mallon grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A scholarship brought him to Manchester's specialist music school, Chetham's School of Music where he was greatly influenced by the conductor and early music specialist John Eliot Gardiner. Later studies included composition with Peter Maxwell Davies at Dartington College Of Arts and violin at the Royal Northern College of Music.

For four years (1989-1992) he was concertmaster of Le Concert Spirituel and Les Arts Florissants in Paris. With these groups, he recorded and performed in concerts all over Europe, including Vienna, London (Wigmore Hall), Berlin, Paris (Versailles), Russia, The Baltic States, China and Japan. In 1993 he accepted positions with the University of Toronto and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra – positions he has now left in order to pursue his conducting career.

In 1996 he was invited to be Music Director of the vocal and instrumental group the Aradia Ensemble. With Aradia he has achieved extraordinary success. They have recorded over twenty-five CDs for the Naxos label, have made two music videos, one film soundtrack, have collaborated with Isadora Duncan and Baroque dancers, and have co-produced opera and worked with Balinese Gamelan. In July 2000, they were the featured ensemble in the New Zealand International Chamber Music Festival and in the summer of 2003 they performed in the festival "Musica nel Chiostro" in Tuscany.

Mallon is also Music Director of the Toronto Chamber Orchestra – a group made up of some of Toronto's best orchestral musicians. They have recorded fifteen CDs for Naxos including Vivaldi's Four Seasons, CPE Bach's Flute Concerti (with Patrick Gallois) and a series of 18th century symphonies.

He has conducted the contemporary opera company Opera Anonymous in productions of Stravinsky's Rakes Progress (1999) and the early 19th century opera Lucas et Cecile by Canadian Joseph Quesnel (2001). More recently with Toronto's Opera in Concert, he has conducted Handel's Semele (2002), Rameau's Castor and Pollux (2003), Handel's Rinaldo (2004), Vivaldi's La Griselda (2006), Mozart's Zaide (2007) and Handel's Tamerlano (2008). Mallon also has an affinity for operetta and with the Toronto Operetta Theatre Mallon has conducted Wiener Blut by Johann Strauss (2006), The Merry Widow (2007) and The Count of Luxembourg (2008) by Franz Lehár.

In 2004 the Gramophone and BBC magazines featured major profiles of Mallon. His recording of Boyce symphonies won a Gramophone Editors choice award in August 2005 and his recording of Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks won the same award in March 2006.

In Ireland he was appointed Artistic Director of Opera 2005, Ireland's newest opera company, formed to celebrate Cork's tenure as European Capital of Culture. With this company he has conducted Mozart's Figaro's Wedding (2005), Bizet's Carmen, Weill's Threepenny Opera (2006), Rossini's Barber of Seville (2006), Lehár's Merry Widow (2007), Mozart's Don Giovanni (2007) and Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (2008).The productions of Figaro and The Barber of Seville were both nominated for Best Opera Production with the prestigious Irish Times Theatre Awards.

In 2006 Mallon accepted the position of Artistic Director of the Grand River Baroque Festival. This festival takes place every June and is set in the picturesque village of Ayr Ontario and is the only baroque festival of its type in the province. The Aradia Ensemble is the orchestra in residence at the festival. In addition, he fulfills numerous invitations to guest conduct in Canada and throughout the world. Mallon is also interested in Irish traditional music.

Albums featuring this artist are available for download from ClassicsOnline.com
20 KLASSISKA FAVORITER (20 Classical Favorites)	8.570566
ARNOLD, S.: 6 Overtures, Op. 8 / Macbeth (Incidental Music)	8.557484
Art & Music: Rembrandt - Music of His Time	8.558118
BACH, C.P.E.: Flute Concertos (Complete)	8.555715-16
BACH, J.S.: Christmas Cantatas	8.554825
BACH, J.S.: Oboe d'amore Concertos, BWV 1053, 1055 / TELEMANN: Oboe d'amore Concertos, TWV 51:G3, 51:A2 (Stacy)	8.570735
BAROQUE FOR MEDITATION	8.557792
BOYCE: Symphonies Nos. 1-8, Op. 2	8.557278
BRIDE'S GUIDE TO WEDDING MUSIC FOR CIVIL CEREMONIES (A)	8.570227-28
BUXTEHUDE: Sacred Cantatas	8.557041
CALDARA: Christmas Cantata	8.553772
CHARPENTIER: Messe de Minuit pour Noel / Te Deum	5.110054
CHARPENTIER: Messe de Minuit pour Noel / Te Deum	8.557229
CHARPENTIER: Noels and Christmas Motets	8.554514
CHARPENTIER: Noels and Christmas Motets, Vol. 2	8.557036
CHRISTMAS (THE VERY BEST OF)	8.570344-45
CIMAROSA: Overtures, Vol. 2	8.570279
CINEMA CLASSICS 2007	8.556834
Discover Music of the Baroque Era	8.558160-61
DISCOVER OPERA	8.558196-97
DISCOVER THE SYMPHONY (2008 edition)	8.558208-09
FLOWERING OF LOVE, (THE) - Beautiful Arias and Sacred Songs of the Baroque	8.570156-57
FLUTE MOMENTS	8.557788
HANDEL (THE VERY BEST OF)	8.552109-10
HANDEL: Israel in Egypt (Aradia Ensemble)	8.570966-67
HANDEL: Rinaldo	8.660165-67
HANDEL: Water Music / Music for the Royal Fireworks	5.110115
HANDEL: Water Music / Music for the Royal Fireworks	6.110115
HANDEL: Water Music / Music for the Royal Fireworks	8.557764
HAYDN: Symphonies, Vol. 30 (Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17)	8.557656
HAYDN: Symphonies, Vol. 31 (Nos. 18, 19, 20, 21)	8.557657
HEAVENLY VOICES - BACH, J.S.: Arias	8.557947-48
LULLY: Ballet Music for the Sun King	8.554003
Music Together	8.557363DX
ORDONEZ: Symphonies	8.557482
PERFECT WINTER WEDDING	8.557977
PICHL: Symphonies	8.557761
PURCELL: Tempest (The)	8.554262
PURCELL: Theatre Music, Vol. 1 - Amphitryon / Sir Barnaby Whigg / The Gordian Knot Unty'd / Circe	8.570149
RAMEAU: Castor et Pollux	8.660118-19
SAINT-GEORGES: Violin Concertos No. 1, Op. 3 and Nos. 2 and 10	8.557322
SAMMARTINI, G.B.: Symphonies J-C 4, 9, 16, 23, 36, 62	8.557298
STORY OF BRITISH CLASSICAL MUSIC (THE)	8.558193-94
SVEN GORAN ERIKSSONS - Klassiska Favoriter	8.503135
VANHAL: Symphonies, Vol. 3	8.557483
VANHAL: Symphonies, Vol. 4	8.570280
VIVALDI (THE VERY BEST OF)	8.552101-02
VIVALDI, A.: Sacred Music, Vol. 1 (Aradia Ensemble)	8.557445
VIVALDI, A.: Sacred Music, Vol. 2 (Aradia Ensemble)	8.557852
VIVALDI: 4 Seasons (The) (Si-qing Lu)	8.225955HDCD
VIVALDI: Dixit Dominus / Gloria	5.110064
VIVALDI: Dixit Dominus / Gloria / Nulla in mundo pax sincera	8.571072
VIVALDI: Dixit Dominus, RV 595 / Gloria, RV 588	6.110064
VIVALDI: Four Seasons (Lu Siqing)	8.225955G
VIVALDI: Griselda	8.660211-13
WASSENAER: Concerti Armonici	8.555384