Chad Kelly

conductor

Sydney-based British keyboardist and conductor Chad Kelly is in demand across opera, symphonic repertoire, historically informed performance, and contemporary music. He is currently on the music staff at Opera Australia, having spent several seasons at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and at English National Opera in London. In 2026, he makes major conducting appearances with the Melbourne, West Australian and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras, joins the Australian Chamber Orchestra on tour, and leads Victorian Opera’s season of The Coronation of Poppea.

 Dedicated to historically informed performance, Chad has conducted at prominent early music festivals and venues across Europe and the UK, including Göttingen Händelfestspiele, Vienna’s Resonanzen Festival, London’s Globe Theatre, the Duke of York’s Theatre, and the London Handel Festival, where he led Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley. He has collaborated with distinguished ensembles across the early music scene, serving as principal keyboardist of the award-winning collective Solomon’s Knot and guest directing both the Academy of Ancient Music and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Building on his early music expertise, Chad made his Opera Australia conducting debut with Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and has led performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. For Victorian Opera, he arranged and conducted a new adaptation of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, presented under the title Abduction and praised for its freshness and contemporary perspective.

Chad’s arrangements and compositions have been recorded on the Sony and Channel Classics labels. A frequent collaborator with violinist Rachel Podger, his version of Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor can be heard on her award-winning album Tutta Sola. He also created a pioneering arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for Rachel and Brecon Baroque, released in 2023 by Channel Classics. This reimagining of the work, in the spirit of Bach’s own transformative practice, earned critical acclaim for its inventive chamber adaptation. In 2025, Chad’s reconstruction of Bach’s lost Köthener Trauermusik was premiered by Solomon’s Knot at Wigmore Hall, followed by performances at the Leipzig Bachfest and a live recording for Deutschlandfunk Kultur at the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg.

Adept in the world of contemporary music, Chad has helped create new work by composers Thomas Adès, Hans Abrahamsen, and Mark-Anthony Turnage, and has workshopped several new pieces for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He wrote the orchestral arrangements for Australian rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s internationally renowned album Phantom Island and conducted their 2025 live orchestral tour. Playing to tens of thousands in iconic venues across Europe and Australia, the tour marked Chad’s debut with the Sydney and Queensland Symphony orchestras.

Educated at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, Chad became Lector in Music at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his contribution to the profession. He continues to mentor young musicians as a guest lecturer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the University of Melbourne.

Representation: World

Chad’s Personal Site