Oliver John Ruthven is a conductor and harpsichordist based in London.

In opera, he has worked for The Royal Opera, The Grange Festival, Opera North, Garsington Opera, The Irish National Opera, and he was the Music Director of Hampstead Garden Opera from 2008-2017. 

OJ has performed and recorded with many of the UK’s leading ensembles, including the Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Sixteen, the Early Opera Company, Stile Antico, His Majesty’s Sackbuts & Cornets, the English Cornet & Sackbut Ensemble, Tenebrae,  the Academy of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, the Aurora Orchestra, and Solomon’s Knot.

Highlights of 2025-26 include his conducting debuts for If Opera (Historia Jonae - Carissimi/ Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda - Monteverdi), and for the Irish Baroque Orchestra (Acis & Galatea - Handel).

He will also be working at Garsington Opera (Rodelinda - Handel), The Royal Opera (Semele - Handel), and Tha English National Opera (Partenope - Handel).

He has worked alongside many of the leading lights of historical performance, including John Eliot Gardiner, Christian Curnyn, Laurence Cummings, Steven Devine, Robert Howarth, Peter Whelan, and Paul Agnew.

OJ is a member of ZAREKtrio and is conductor of St James’ Baroque Ensemble, Invicta Voices, and the Morgan Stanley Choir.