Ian Page is the founder, conductor and artistic director of Classical Opera and The Mozartists, and is receiving growing recognition as one of the leading British conductors of his generation. He began his musical education as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, and subsequently studied English Literature at the University of York before completing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At the start of his career he worked on the music staff at Glynebourne Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera Factory and the Drottningholm Slottsteater in Sweden, assisting such conductors as Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Alexander Gibson, Ivor Bolton and Mark Wigglesworth.

With Classical Opera he has conducted most of Mozart’s early operas—including the première of the ‘original’ version of Mitridate, re di Ponto and a new completion of Zaide—as well as the three Da Ponte operas and La clemenza di Tito. He has also conducted the UK premières of Gluck’s La clemenza di Tito, Telemann’s Orpheus, Jommelli’s Il Vologeso, Haydn’s Applausus and Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe, and the first staging for 250 years of Johann Christian Bach’s Adriano in Siria. He made his Royal Opera House début conducting Arne’s Artaxerxes at the Linbury Theatre, and his studio recording of the work was subsequently released on Linn Records. He has conducted in all of London’s leading concert halls, and also at the Bath, Brighton, Buxton, Lichfield and Newbury Festivals, as well as in Italy, France, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. In 2019 he conducted Handel’s Ariodante at the Drottningholm Festival in Sweden, with Ann Hallenberg in the title role.

He devised and conducted Classical Opera’s recordings of ‘The A-Z of Mozart Opera’ (Signum Classics) and ‘Blessed Spirit—a Gluck retrospective’ (Wigmore Hall Live), both of which were selected for Gramophone magazine’s annual Critic’s Choice, and he recently embarked on an acclaimed new complete cycle of Mozart opera recordings with Classical Opera. He has also created and devised MOZART 250, a ground-breaking 27-year journey through Mozart’s music and influences, which was launched in London in 2015.