Ian Dearden

Ian Dearden has been responsible for sound design in numerous theatrical productions, including various operas. He contributed to Harrison Birtwistle's operas Gawain (Royal Opera House, 1991), The Second Mrs Kong (Glyndebourne Touring Opera, 1994), The Last Supper (Berlin State Opera, 2000), and was part of the original sound design team for the premiere of The Mask of Orpheus at the English National Opera in 1986.

Since 1996, he has formed the duo Sound Intermedia with David Sheppard. Dearden and Sheppard have collaboratively created sound designs for opera productions such as Helicopter String Quartet (Birmingham Opera Company, 2012), Peter Grimes on the Beach (Aldeburgh Productions, 2013), Quartett (Royal Opera House, 2014), Passion (Music Theatre Wales, 2018), and Denis & Katya (London Sinfonietta, 2020). Additionally, the duo frequently collaborates with the Colin Currie Group, performing works by Steve Reich, and has produced two critically acclaimed albums featuring Reich's music.

In recent years, Dearden has designed sound for Claudio Monteverdi's Orfeo and The Return of Ulysses (2015 and 2018), Mark-Anthony Turnage's Coraline (2018), and Stephen Higgins' The Monstrous Child (2019), all of which were productions at the Royal Opera House.

Last update: 14 September 2023