Fired conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner hits back with new orchestra

Disgraced conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner has announced his new musical ensemble following his termination from the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras (MCO) this year after he hit a singer.

Gardiner’s new ensemble, the Constellation Choir and Orchestra, will be lead by him for a series of five concerts this December. The ensemble has been created by Gardiner in response to “direct personal invitations from the venues to assemble musicians and singers and bring his unique style and quality of performance to their audiences”, a press release states.
The Constellation Choir and Orchestra will perform from 7-15 December in Hamburg, Vienna, Luxembourg, Dortmund, and Versailles.
“I made clear when I parted company with the MCO earlier this summer that I was not in any sense ready to retire. I said I would be focussing on a rich variety of new projects,” Gardiner has said of the project.
Gardiner has also announced the foundation of Springhead Constellation, a wider project that incorporates the Constellation Choir and Orchestra and will programme an annual Springhead Festival.
Situated in Springhead, North Dorset, Gardiner’s childhood home, the ensembles will come together for the festival to combine their musical programming with seminars, encounters and smaller-scale events.
“Playing under Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s direction is akin to climbing the highest peaks of a musical Parnassus. He is a visionary who elucidates music in a uniquely committed way, making it relevant to today’s complex world. I am very much looking forward to being part of Springhead Constellation translating that vision into sound for audiences far and wide,” Lead violinist Kati Debretzeni said.
The Springhead Constellation programme extends through to 2026 with planned tours next June, autumn and the following spring. Currently, only the 2024 December dates are available for sale.
Gardiner was terminated from his position at the MCO in July this year following an accusation of him assaulting a member of the orchestra in 2023.
“Following a reported assault in August 2023, John Eliot Gardiner stepped back from public music-making. He accepted full responsibility for the incident, and he has not worked with the organisation for nearly a year,” MCO said at the time.
81-year-old Gardiner formed the MCO in 1964. In 2023, he was conducting a performance of ‘Les Troyens’ at the Berlioz Festival in La Côte-Saint-André when the incident occurred. The then 80-year-old conductor hit William Thomas, a 29-year-old bass singer, after he left the podium to the supposedly incorrect left side.
Reportedly frustrated with Thomas’s exit, Gardiner approached him after the end of the first half. As Thomas and other castmates celebrated, Gardiner allegedly walked over with a pint of beer and said: “I feel like throwing this over your head.”
Reportedly there was a “brief shouting battle” before Gardiner slapped and punched the singer in the face.
After the MCO released their statement about Gardiner stepping down, the conductor also released his own statement. He said the choir had been “the proudest and most inspiring project of my life, and I have arrived at this decision with a heavy heart after six decades of remarkable collaborative achievement.”
“I have done a great deal of soul searching since the deeply regrettable incident at the Festival Berlioz at La Côte-Saint-André last August and have apologised repeatedly and unreservedly for losing control in such an inappropriate fashion. I have undergone extensive therapy and other counselling over the past 11 months and have learned a great deal about myself and my past behaviour, but I have reached the conclusion that the best way forward for both myself and for the MCO is to accept that a clear change in our relationship is necessary now for the good of both parties.”