Born in the USA, where he trained under Leonard Bernstein, among others, David Charles Abell has for many years been based in the UK. During the last few years he has conducted Porgy and Bess and Kevin Puts’s critically acclaimed Silent Night at Cincinnati Opera, the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies in the West End, and the Twenty-fifth Anniversary spectacular of Les Misérables at the O2 arena. He also supervised the music for Candide at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London and conducted the French premieres of four Sondheim musicals: Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, and Into the Woods at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris and Follies at the Opéra de Toulon. Since 2011 he has conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra at the annual Olivier Awards ceremony. With the same Orchestra he made his debut at the BBC Proms in a live telecast of Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, subsequently conducting the much-lauded Proms celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s eightieth birthday in 2010 and the War Horse Prom in 2014. In recent years he has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra in repertoire ranging from Puccini to Copland and Rachmaninoff. His discography includes recordings of Diana Damrau’s celebration of operetta and musical theatre, Forever, and, for Chandos, Jonathan Dove’s opera Tobias and the Angel. As a strong champion of the restoration of original orchestrations, David Charles Abell also prepared the groundbreaking critical edition of Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate for publication.