Steven Devine
Conductor & Keyboard
Biography
Steven Devine combines a career as a conductor and director of orchestral, choral and opera repertoire with that of a solo harpsichordist and fortepianist. He is Conductor and Artistic Advisor of The English Haydn Festival; Music Director of New Chamber Opera, Oxford and Director of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s “Bach the Universe & Everything” series.
On the concert platform he has directed Purcell, Blow, Bach, Handel and Mozart with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Bach Easter Oratorio with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Haydn, Handel, CPE Bach, JC Bach, Ditterdorf and Viotti with the English Haydn Orchestra; Handel, Vivaldi and Porpora with Trondheim Barokk, Bach Christmas Oratorio with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble; Handel Solomon as well as JS and CPE Bach programmes with Victoria Baroque Players, British Columbia, Handel Belshazzar at the Valetta Festival and Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks with Arion Baroque Ensemble, Montreal. He has also directed programmes with the Academy of Ancient Music, Academie d’Ambronay, the Mozart Festival Orchestra and St Paul’s Chamber Orchestra,
Devine’s opera repertoire includes works by Purcell, Cavalli, Handel, Haydn and Mozart as well as rarities by Galuppi, Salieri and Cimarosa.
Devine’s recent and forthcoming projects include a return to the Valetta Baroque Festival with Scarlatti La Giuditta, Messiah with The Academy of Ancient Music in La Palmas, playing and directing Bach and Telemann with Symphony Nova Scotia and Brandenburg Concertos with both the OAE and Ensemble 360.
Alongside Dido & Aeneas with Sarah Connolly in the title role, Devine has made a number of acclaimed recordings of keyboard concertos as well as solo recital discs.
Steven Devine was educated at Chetham’s School of Music before reading Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford and completed his studies at the Royal College of Music. He was Director of Opera Restor’d from 2002-2010 and Kurator and Conductor of the Norwegian Wind Ensemble from 2016-2018. He is a member of electronic music group The Art of Moog performing Bach on synthesizers.
Steven Devine is represented for General Management. For all enquiries please contact Caroline Phillips cphillips@caroline-phillips.co.uk
Reviews
Academy of Ancient Music – Handel & Bach – Madrid
Stupendous performance by the harpsichordist Devine, clear in his articulation and ornamentation, precise and successfully executed, used with sensitivity and intelligence, and impeccable adaptation to the diverse nature of the music performed.
Scherzo.es, 23 March 2023
OAE – Handel Aci, Galatea e Polifemo – Valetta Baroque Festival
The instrumentalists threw themselves into the score with a pleasingly festive and self-confident verve appropriate for the occasion. Their theatricality never boisterous with Devine controlling the most coherent expression and tempi with an unerring sense of direction…
Bachtrack, 23 January 2023
OAE – Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The OAE, with their period forces, acting very much as a chamber ensemble, or a meeting of like-minded soloists gathered under director Steven Devine’s watchful eyes and stylish harpsichord continuo.
Planet Hugill, 5 October 2022
Music@Malling – Brandenburg Concertos
Star harpsichordist Steven Devine.
The Observer, 30 April 2022
OAE – Handel – Aci, Galatea e Polifemo
The OAE, under Devine’s meticulous direction, set the scene …. For a moment, time stood still…. Devine’s customary zest and attention to detail kept the drama flowing while giving space for the singers to excel.
Bachtrack, 24 January 2022
Con Arte e Maestria: Virtuoso violin ornamentation from the dawn of the Italian Baroque – Resonus
Steven Devine captures the coldness of pew and shiver of sin in an intelligently paced argument. Indeed, all of Devine’s solo offerings here are marvellous. His harpsichord realisations, seasoned with the subtlest wriggle of dance, are every period violinist’s dream.
Gramophone, October 2021
The Mozartists at Cadogan Hall
Steven Devine is one of our finest harpsichord players around at the moment … Devine’s cadenza here was most impressive. A fabulous performance, as bright as a button…. A triumphant performance.
Seen and Heard International, 11 July 2021
Galuppi – La Diavolessa – Soloists of New Chamber Opera and The Band of Instruments
The Band of Instruments are led in their enthusiastic performance by Steven Devine, who alone accompanies the secco recitatives from the harpsichord, and then conducts the arias with much rhythmic alacrity.
Seen and Heard International, 4 July 2021
Das Wohltemperierte Klavier vol. 2 – Resonus
I said in reviewing the first volume that Devine’s ‘has a particular seemingly effortless grace, and it’s the one of all I’ve heard in the past ten years that I am happiest to live with.’ The listener looking to understand Devine’s subtle approach to rhythmic articulation should listen to the swinging inégales of the Prelude in D (CD 1, track 9) or to the Fugue in D minor (CD 1, track 12). His ornaments and passagework are equally unmechanical and have that degree of fluidity that shows how well he is in command of the music.
Early Music Review, 2021
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment – Dido & Aeneas –Chaconne
More passionate, a bit darker again, and an even wider emotional range is Kenny & Devine’s 2009 recording with Sarah Connolly as Dido and Gerald Finley as Aeneas and this is my overall recommendation.
Recommended Recording. BBC Radio 3 “Building a library”, 30 November 2019
