Ian Peter Bugeja is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, where he was generously supported by the Janatha Stubbs Foundation to read for an MMus in orchestral and opera conducting under the tutelage of conductor-in-residence David Jones. He previously studied piano and music theory with Maria Dolores Amodio and Stephanie Quintano Lauri respectively, before furthering his musical studies at the University of Malta – reading for a B.A. (Hons.) degree in Music (major in piano performance and conducting) under the tutelage of Michael Laus. Ian Peter has recently concluded his doctoral studies in historical performance on the MPhil course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London under the tutelage of John Irving, Biranda Ford, and Christopher Suckling. He has also been tutored in opera conducting by Richard Divall, and in symphonic conducing by Jonathan Butcher, Neil Thomson, and Toby Purser, and has participated in master-classes with various internationally-acclaimed musicians amongst whom were John Fisher, Emma Kirkby, Siegfried Mauser, Douglas Haas, John Bethell, Franco Foderà, George Konstantinidis, and Geoffrey Haydock, as well as concert pianists Yuri Didenko, Penelope Haydock, Iris Senturker, Rudina Ciko, Zoe Samsarelou, Massimiliano Damerini, Olivier Lechardeur, and Olga Bobrovnikova.
Ian Peter specialises in historical performance as both conductor and soloist, regularly conducting early instrumental music and operas from the keyboard (harpsichord/fortepiano); he is the founder and executive director of vocal and period instrument ensemble Les Bougies Baroques – with whom he has directed and toured with extensively across the UK and mainland Europe to great acclaim. He has also worked with a number of ensembles and orchestras that include the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Orion Symphony Orchestra, RWCMD Chamber Orchestra, REPCo Orchestra, and the Wales International Academy of Voice (Saturday Academy); operas in which Ian Peter has featured as main conductor and assistant conductor include Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (Wales Millennium Centre, 2011), Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Mid-Wales Opera, 2011), Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Wales Millennium Centre, 2012), Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor & Salieri’s Prima la musica e poi le parole (Teatru Manoel, 2012), the Mascagni-Leoncavallo Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci double-bill (Teatru Manoel, 2013), and Gluck’s Il Parnaso Confuso (Wilton's Music Hall, 2015).
Ian Peter has toured the UK & mainland Europe extensively, performed in Damascus (Syria) and was a prize-winner during the fourth edition of the international piano competition Concorso Pianistico W.A. Mozart held in Italy; he has also performed for HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and other distinguished guests for a Duke of Edinburgh event, while in 2013 he was responsible for musically preparing internationally-acclaimed countertenor Max Cencic ahead of the release of his album Venezia with the record-label Virgin. Notable appearances have included a performance with the Academy of Ancient Music in a 2013 ‘side-by-side’ concert, closing the ‘Valletta International Baroque Festival’ with Les Bougies Baroques in 2014, and debuting in Berlin later in 2014 (also with Les Bougies Baroques). Forthcoming engagements as conductor and keyboard player include various symphonic and operatic concerts in London and mainland Europe with Les Bougies Baroques.