The renowned conductor John Eliot Gardiner, who has faced widespread criticism since he struck a singer during a tour in France last year, announced on Monday that he had formed a new choir and orchestra as he attempts a comeback on the global stage.
Gardiner said his new ensembles, the Constellation Choir and the Constellation Orchestra, would be made up of prominent musicians and singers from across Europe and would embark on a tour in December with stops in Germany, France, Austria and Luxembourg.
“More than anything else,” Gardiner said in a statement, “I am so excited and grateful to be working with such exceptional musicians once again, not forgetting the important lessons I have learned and needed to learn from the past year.”
Gardiner, 81, a major figure in classical music, is known for founding three acclaimed period ensembles over the past six decades: the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. He has released celebrated recordings, written a book about Bach and conducted at the coronation of King Charles III of Britain.
But since the incident in France, he has largely been absent from the global stage. In July, the board of the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, the nonprofit that oversees the three ensembles, said it had decided that Gardiner would not return to the organization. (Gardiner has sought to frame that decision as his own.)
Gardiner struck the singer, William Thomas, a rising bass from England, on the face last year after a performance of the first two acts of Berlioz’s opera “Les Troyens” at the Festival Berlioz in La Côte-St.-André. He was apparently upset that Thomas had headed the wrong way off the podium at the concert, people at the festival said at the time.
Gardiner has apologized for his behavior and has said that he has sought therapy and counseling. In a recent interview with The Financial Times, he spoke about the incident, saying he had made a “crass, cardinal error.”
“I lost my rag,” he said. “I did something that is really unpardonable in a conductor.”
He added: “I didn’t strike him too hard. I did nonetheless cuff or biff a young singer.”
After a long absence, Gardiner returned to the stage in July, conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France at a festival in Montpellier, France.
Gardiner said on Monday that he planned to tour with the Constellation Choir and Orchestra through at least 2026. A new organization, Springhead Constellation, will oversee the ensembles as well as other cultural activities, including festivals and seminars, according to the announcement.
“Our aspiration is to create accessible, engaging and educational performances that resonate across all generations and geographies,” Gardiner said in the statement.
For his debut with the Constellation Choir and Orchestra, Gardiner has chosen the same Christmas program that he was to have performed with his former ensembles.
On Dec. 7, Gardiner will conduct the program, which features works by Bach and Marc-Antoine Charpentier, at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany. A week later, his former ensembles, led by the conductor Christophe Rousset, will perform the same program in the same concert hall.
The Elbphilharmonie addressed the repeat program on Monday, saying that Gardiner was originally supposed to have led his former ensembles until their separation in July. The hall tried to put a positive spin on the developments.
“The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg is the only place in the world where this special program can be heard in both first-class interpretations within a very short space of time,” it said in a statement.
