Will Sharma is a conductor and répétiteur working across a broad range of opera, orchestral and music theatre repertoire. The 24/25 Season includes returns to Longborough Festival Opera as Chorus Master for Dido & Aeneas and Wahnfried, and as Musical Director for their education tour The Implausible Potions of Dr. Dulcamara. He conducts a staged version of Handel’s Messiah with The Merry Opera Company & Ulster Opera and continues his work as a guest conductor with the London Euphonia Orchestra. This season, he makes conducting debuts with the Tête-à-Tête opera festival and with the Berlin Sinfonietta.

 

Recent highlights have included La Bohème, Götterdämerung, Carmen and The Fairy Queen (Longborough Festival Opera); Arminio (Royal Ballet and Opera); The Turn of the Screw (Opéra de Dijon); Messiah (The Merry Opera Company); Ein Deutsches Requiem (Oxford Orpheus); TIDE! (Aldeburgh Festival/Britten Pears Arts); Eugene Onegin (West Green House Opera).​ Will is the Chorus Master of the Longborough Festival Opera Youth Chorus and was formerly Principal Conductor of the GoodEnsemble and Associate Conductor of the Royal Forest of Dean Orchestra.

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A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Will completed his undergraduate degree in Vocal Studies under the guidance of John Evans and Adrian Thompson, before joining their Opera School. He studied as a répétiteur with Elizabeth Rowe and Susanna Stranders and subsequently as a conducting fellow where he was mentored by Dominic Wheeler. At Guildhall, Will worked as assistant conductor and chorus master for their Opera Makers world premières as well as productions of The Little Green Swallow (Dove), Dido and Aeneas (Purcell) and various opera scenes. He was a répétiteur and continuo player for productions such as I’m Cleaning, I’m Cleaning (Esbenshade), the spring Opera Scenes, and their critically acclaimed production of La fedeltà premiata (Haydn).

 

Equally at home in Musical Theatre, the 23/24 season saw Will return to the world famous Minack Theatre as Musical Director of Kander & Ebb’s The Rink. Previous credits at the Minack include Everybody's Talking About Jamie and 13: The Musical; He was musical director for The Kids Who Make It Happen at Cadogan Hall and has worked on shows such as Sunset Boulevard, Jesus Christ Superstar (Lloyd Webber); Sweeney Todd (Sondheim); Legally Blonde (O’Keefe); Dogfight (Pasek & Paul) and Sister Act (Menken) to name but a few. He has worked on recordings with iTheatrics and as UK music director and pianist for new JR productions including Matilda, Cats and My Fair Lady.
 

Prior to their sad closure, he was part of the creative team for the Make a Difference Trust, a charity which raised funds to help those affected by HIV and AIDS in both the UK and worldwide. Since 2017, he had been their Musical Director and Arranger for A West End Christmas, an annual concert featuring talent from London’s West End held at the Actor’s Church, Covent Garden, as well as playing for and advising on other events such as West End Eurovision.