David Pickard

David Pickard was born in London in 1960. After studying music at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, he worked as Company Manager of the Royal Opera Company from 1982 to 1987 where he toured with the Royal Opera to Los Angeles, Athens and the Far East.

Since then he has held a number of senior posts in the arts including Administrator of the New Shakespeare Company (1987-89), Managing Director of Kent Opera (1989-90), Assistant Director of the 1991 Japan Festival (1990-91) and Artistic Administrator of the European Arts Festival (1991-92). He was Chief Executive of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment from 1993 until 2001 and General Director of Glyndebourne from 2001 – 2015. Since 2015 he has been the Director of the BBC Proms.