The Göttingen Handel Festival has named Laurence Cummings as the successor to Nicholas McGegan as artistic director from 2012.

Cummings, a conductor and harpsichordist, is currently musical director of the London Handel Festival, and will be a familiar name to audiences at such venues as the London Coliseum and Glyndebourne. Recent recordings include Esther, released by Somm in 2008. It earned a Gramophone Editor’s Choice, and prompted reviewer David Vickers to describe Cummings as “one of our finest and most natural Handelian conductors”. (Read review in the Gramophone Archive)

Founded in 1919, the German Göttingen Handel Festival was a pioneer in the revival of period Baroque performances. Beginning then with the first modern performance of Rodelinda, it continues to present a fully-staged Handel opera every year, along with other concerts and events. Prior to McGegan, it was led for a decade by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.