Biz news: Defections at Askonas Holt Operanorman lebrecht January 29, 2026Associate director Keiron Cooke has left Askonas to be a full director at Rayfield Allied. He appears to have taken with him a number of artists, including the leading contralto Dame Sarah Connolly, along with sopranos Lydia Teuscher and Christina Gansch, tenor Benjamin Hulett, bass James Platt, and stage directors Deborah Warner and James Dacre. That’s quite a haul. Kieron spent twenty years at Askonas. Before that he was a curator at the Britten-Pears Library, and an arts administrator at Glyndebourne.