biography

Born in India, Ishan Bhadra is a pianist, repetiteur and conductor specialising in opera and collaborative music-making. His work spans opera, ballet, orchestral and chamber music. 

In opera, Ishan has served as Music Director for Les contes d'Hoffmann, Dido and Aeneas (2026) and Die Zauberflöte (2025), and as Assistant Conductor and repetiteur for Don Pasquale (2025) and Turandot (2024).  As a repetiteur and vocal coach, Ishan has extensive knowledge of the operatic repertoire and is proficient in Italian, German, French and Spanish, with a working knowledge of Russian and Czech. His repertoire includes La bohème, Carmen, Suor Angelica, Rigoletto, La traviata, Così fan tutte and L’incoronazione di Poppea.

Ishan recently completed his Master’s degree in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Michael Dussek and James Cheung. He has received coaching from musicians including Malcolm Martineau and Susan Manoff and participated in conducting masterclasses with Neil Thomson and Colin Metters. He continues his conducting development through private study with Alice Farnham and Eduardo Portal. From September 2026, he will join the Guildhall School of Music & Drama as a repetiteur.

His wider collaborative work includes ballet and orchestral performance. He has worked as a ballet pianist at Sylvia Young Theatre School and Elmhurst Ballet School and as a repetiteur with Birmingham Opera Company. He has performed orchestral keyboard with ensembles including the University of London Symphony Orchestra and Hertfordshire County Youth Orchestra. He was awarded second place in the Andrew Downes Prize and the Delius Prize in 2022, adjudicated by Sir Mark Elder.