The Chairman of NBR New Zealand Opera, David Gascoigne, announced today the appointment of Aidan Lang (right) as the opera company's new General Director. British-born, Lang is an accomplished international opera stage director and artistic director. The Chairman of NBR New Zealand Opera, David Gascoigne, announced today the appointment of Aidan Lang (right) as the opera company's new General Director. British-born, Lang is an accomplished international opera stage director and artistic director.Aidan Lang brings a successful track-record to the General Director's position, having worked in a variety of roles in the opera world for the past 23 years - 15 years continuously in senior artistic positions.

He has extensive experience both as a freelance stage director and a senior arts manager with notable opera companies and arts festivals in the UKand Europe. He is the former Artistic Director of Opera Zuid in Maastrict, The Netherlands; former Principal Associate Director at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Director of Production of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. Currently he is Artistic Director of the Buxton Festival - a position he has held for the last six years.

Commenting on the appointment, Mr Gascoigne said: "We are very pleased indeed to have secured the talents of Aidan Lang to be at the helm of The NBR New Zealand Opera. He is a talented opera professional who has earned high respect from all the organisations he has worked closely with over his career. He is regarded as an exceptional team leader, having inspired by enthusiasm and led by example. He will bring a richness and depth of experience to the company and to its productions.

"Aidan's experience, acumen and enthusiasm make him a fine choice to lead The NBR New Zealand Opera into its next phase of development and to build upon the company's success to date. This is all good news for our loyal supporters, our art form and, importantly, for New Zealand opera audiences."

Mr Lang will work closely with and complement The NBR New Zealand Opera's Director of Music, Wyn Davies, appointed in June 2005. Both are known to each other, having worked together on previous occasions in the UK, and Mr Lang's appointment has been fully endorsed and welcomed by Mr Davies.

Mr Lang said: "I am both thrilled and honoured to be appointed General Director of The NBR New Zealand Opera. I have long held the belief that companies such as this provide exactly the right conditions and ambiance to create opera performances with the potential to stimulate and move their audiences. I see a great scope for growth in terms of output and repertoire, and will be aiming to position opera as an essential part of New Zealander's arts experience.

"I come to a company on a very solid footing, and will be looking to build on the excellent work that has gone before. This country has produced many fine artists over the years, and so I am aiming to develop The NBR New Zealand Opera into both a forum for emerging young talented performers, and also a place to which New Zealand's established singers, who ply their trade abroad, will be proud to return. There are exciting and challenging times ahead."

A graduate of the University of Birmingham, Mr Lang began his career as a Staff Producer with Opera 80, Glyndebourne and Welsh National Opera during the 1980s.

In 1990 he was appointed the inaugural Artistic Director at Opera Zuid, a newly created touring opera company with provincial funding. Today, Opera Zuid is firmly established with national government funding and a permanent fixture of operatic life, along with the Netherlands Opera, in that country. During his seven years with the company, Mr Lang was responsible for expanding its touring output and repertoire, blending well-known with unfamiliar works - for which the company has achieved a successful reputation and become renowned.

Parallel to this position, Mr Lang worked at Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Principal Associate Director, and as Director of Production of Glyndebourne Touring Opera.

At GTO his achievements as a member of a close senior management team included; putting the touring company on the artistic map; carving out a new identity of its own, distinct from the larger Glyndebourne Festival; improving the level of casting and calibre of touring productions.

In 2000 Mr Lang was appointed Artistic Director of the Buxton Festival - his current position. Mr Lang has been attributed with being a key figure and pivotal in the building of the festival's artistic success, audience growth and reputation as the UK's premier arts event in this field.

As a freelance stage director, Mr Lang is also highly regarded and has worked with major opera companies around the world. Much of the last five years has been spent between the UK and Brazil, where he was engaged to build up, opera by opera, the first Brazilian production of Wagner's Ring Cycle which successfully premiered in its entirety at the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus in May 2005. Other significant opera directing credits include: Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria in Lisbon, The Turn of the Screw in Salzburg, and the British premieres of Schumann's Genoveva, The Magic Fountain by Delius at Scottish Opera and Siegfried Matthus's Song of Love and Death for Glyndebourne.

Mr Lang will shortly be taking up his appointment with The NBR New Zealand Opera. Donald Trott is the Acting General Director for the company in the interim.