Bridget Cunningham

About Bridget Cunningham

Bridget Cunningham MMus ARCM BA (Hons)
Conductor & Harpsichordist

‘An individual who powers the classical music world’ Final Note Magazine 2019.

Bridget Cunningham is an international conductor, prizewinning harpsichordist and musicologist, who trained and was awared a junior fellowship at the Royal College of Music, London.

As Artistic Director of London Early Opera, Cunningham has researched and created a new series of Handel recordings with Signum Classics. These CDs are being released worldwide and Handel in Italy Vol.1 & Vol.2, Handel in Ireland Vol.1, Handel at Vauxhall Vol.1 & Vol.2 and Handel’s Queens have been reviewed with international acclaim and were shortlisted for a Gramophone Award nomination 2020 ; “Handel has never sounded better” 5 Stars BBC Music Magazine

As well as her speciality in baroque music with performances of Purcell's Fairy Queen and Handel's Semele, Cunningham has a wide musical experience performing music by Piazolla with the RTE Irish Chamber Orchestra, conducting recordings of music by George Butterworth and Beethoven's Piano Concerto in C minor. She conducted a world premiere commissioned by the BBC celebrating the 300th Anniversary of Handel's Water Music – broadcast live on the River Thames. She also gave several online performances and talks during COVID-19 lockdown including Living Room Live, Vocalista, East Cork Early Music Festival & Saturday at Noon session with the Oxford Youth Choirs.

Her solo harpsichord performances include playing for the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace, Maison Hine Cognac, Château de Hautefort, Oxford and Cambridge Club and the London Handel Festival. She collaborates with baroque dance groups and gives lecture recitals and concerts at art galleries and opened the Watteau exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

Cunningham has performed at prestigious venues and festivals across the world including the Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, Italy, Yale University USA, Britten Theatre, St John's Smith Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Festi Classique, France, Innsbruck Festival Austria, Finland, Iceland and the Victoria International Festival, Gozo. Radio and TV broadcasts include BBC 2 Messiah, BBC 4 Vivaldi's Women, BBC Radio 3 In Tune, BBC Radio 4 Front Row, SkyArts, RTE, RTP, Radio Stephansdom and a short film for Handel & Hendrix in London.