Dynamic young British-Canadian conductor Henry Kennedy has demonstrated his facility for moving seamlessly between the opera house and the concert stage with an impressive array of international credits. He is currently serving a two-year appointment as the inaugural Resident Conductor of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) in Ottawa; has served as Resident Conductor for Poland’s Wrocław Opera; and conducted Riccardo Muti’s Orchestra Cherubini in a new production of Tosca in Puccini’s birthplace to celebrate the 2024 centenary of the composer’s death, when Corriere Fiorentino declared him to be “the revelation in this Tosca.” He has also collaborated as an assistant conductor with Sir Simon Rattle and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, among many other luminaries, and in 2025 was ranked by the CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster, among “30 under 30” notable Canadian classical musicians.

As the inaugural Resident Conductor of the NACO, Kennedy covers and assists Music Director Alexander Shelley and others with rehearsals and concert preparation, and covers selected projects with the Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto Symphony Orchestras. He has also helmed numerous NACO programs of his own during his tenure in Ottawa, including another Tosca in a concert performance; yearly collaborations with the American Composer’s Orchestra in their EarShot series, which develops relationships between composers and orchestras; and repertoire including Beethoven and Sibelius symphonies, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and a reading of a new opera by Canadian composer Ian Cusson. The post in Ottawa has also led to other regional projects, including a concert with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, a new production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Edmonton Opera, and new music readings with Symphony Nova Scotia.

Kennedy is especially adept at building lasting relationships with both conductors and institutions. Collaborating with artistic director Mariusz Kwiecień and music director Bassem Akiki during his tenure at Poland’s Wrocław Opera, he assisted on Le nozze di Figaro and Madama Butterfly and took charge of performances of Don Giovanni, Carmen, and Les Pêcheurs de perles. He also assisted Akiki for the world premiere of the late Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans’s On purge bébé! at The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie in Brussels. Kennedy was brought back in February 2024 to conduct Pêcheurs at Poland’s Silesian Opera in Bytom, then again to conduct La bohème in Wrocław the following year. He has been engaged to return yet again in 2027 for further performances of Pêcheurs.

In orchestral repertoire, Kennedy has assumed responsibilities as assistant to Marin Alsop, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Hannu Lintu, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and John Storgårds. He served as assistant conductor to Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in 2023 for a concert tour of Berlioz’s Les Troyens, contributing to performances at La Côte-Saint-André’s Berlioz Festival, Salzburg Festival, Royal Opera of Versailles, Berliner Philharmonie, and BBC Proms, and returned to assist Gardiner again two years later when he conducted the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In between those engagements, Kennedy served twice as assistant conductor to Sir Simon Rattle: first with the Czech Philharmonic in Prague, and then with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich. Kennedy has also enjoyed mentoring relationships with Christian Thielemann and Richard Bonynge, both of whom have continued to offer their enthusiastic support.

Kennedy’s relationship with Riccardo Muti is also ongoing: he was chosen in December 2021 as one of five conductors for the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy, focusing on Nabucco and filmed in Milan by RAI. When Muti had unexpectedly to withdraw from two performances of Nabucco excerpts that month in Rimini and Ravenna, he invited Kennedy to be his replacement. In November 2024, Kennedy found himself on the podium of Muti’s Orchestra Cherubini again, conducting a new production of Tosca in Puccini’s hometown of Lucca on the 100th anniversary of his death, followed a few months later by a tour of the production to Livorno, Pisa, and Ravenna.

In recent seasons Kennedy has conducted a number of other orchestras across Europe, including the Polish Radio Orchestra, in a live broadcast of Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony; Poland’s Sudeten Philharmonic and Zielona Góra Philharmonic; and Romania’s Braşov Philharmonic. In 2017 in London he founded the Resonate Symphony Orchestra, drawn from recent graduates of leading British conservatories, and led the ensemble in repertoire ranging from Bach to Wagner, Bruckner, and Shostakovich.

Kennedy graduated with Distinction and Honours from London’s Royal Academy of Music, where he studied clarinet and piano in addition to conducting.