Alumni

Bertie Baigent is Assistant Conductor of the Colorado Symphony and Music Director of Waterperry Opera Festival. Recent and forthcoming highlights include a series of all-Beethoven concerts in Colorado, projects with the Denver Young Artists Orchestra as their Principal Guest Conductor, the League of American Orchestras Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview and productions of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni for Waterperry and Handel’s Partenope for Hampstead Garden Opera.

Baigent has assisted Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Jac van Steen and Masaaki Suzuki and collaborated with the Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, London Sinfonietta and Britten Sinfonia. He has also participated in masterclasses with Martyn Brabbins and Pierre-André Valade, and as part of the Dirigentenforum in Germany.

Winner of the Royal Academy of Music’s Sir Henry Wood Scholarship and Ernest Read Prize in 2017, he was the youngest semi-finalist in the London Symphony Orchestra Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in 2018. Between 2016-18 he was Chief Conductor the London Young Sinfonia.

Born in Oxford in 1995, Baigent read music at the University of Cambridge, going on to study conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with Sian Edwards and graduating with distinction. He is also a composer, his music having been commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and performed by the Aurora Orchestra, Fretwork and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. He is currently based in London and Denver.

Photo by Benjamin Durrant

Daniel Cohen is the General Music Director of the Staatstheater Darmstadt, where current plans include productions of Fidelio, Die Zauberflöte and Lohengrin, a ballet production of Le sacre du printemps and a series of symphonic concerts. Recent and upcoming highlights include debuts with the Vienna Symphony conducting Don Quichotte at the Bregenz Festival and with the Norwegian Opera conducting Le Nozze di Figaro; and returns to the Teatro Massimo di Palermo with Idomeneo, the Israeli Opera with Così fan tutte and the Deutsche Oper Berlin for Don Giovanni. In addition, Cohen is scheduled to conduct symphony concerts with the Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester, Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, among others.

Following his successful debut at the Staatsoper Berlin conducting Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Cohen was invited back to conduct performances of Die Zauberflöte, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Turn of the Screw. Cohen was also Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 2015 to 2017, where he conducted a number of productions from La traviata to Georg Friedrich Haas’s new opera, Morgen und Abend.

Other operatic highlights include an acclaimed debut with the Canadian Opera Company with La clemenza di Tito and a new production of Die Zauberflöte at the Macerata Opera Festival. Cohen also works frequently with the Israeli Opera.

Cohen’s symphonic work has brought him to orchestras worldwide including the Staatskapelle Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino among others.

Contemporary repertoire is of keen interest to Cohen, who was an assistant of Pierre Boulez at the Lucerne Festival Academy. He pursues this passion as Artistic Director of The Gropius Ensemble and has also collaborated with members of the London Symphony Orchestra as part of their LSO Soundhub programme for young composers.

While still a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Cohen was appointed Music Director of the Jersey Chamber Orchestra, where he was Chief Conductor for 10 seasons. Cohen has also been a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

Photo by Kaupo Kikkas

Born in 1974, Edward Gardner was educated at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. He went on to become Assistant Conductor of The Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne on Tour. His many accolades include the Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor Award, Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and an OBE for services to music.

Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra since October 2015, Gardner has led the orchestra on multiple international tours and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival. Gardner was recently appointed Principal Conductor Designate of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, his tenure commencing in September 2021.

In demand as a guest conductor, Gardner has worked with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker and at the Royal Opera House in a new production of Káťa Kabanová (praised as a ‘magnificent interpretation’ by the Guardian).

Upcoming plans include a revival of Benoît Jacquot’s 2004 production of Werther at the Royal Opera House and La damnation de Faust for The Metropolitan Opera; four concerts for the London Philharmonic Orchestra; and bringing the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s acclaimed Peter Grimes to the Royal Festival Hall.

Gardner also continues his longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010-16, and BBC Symphony Orchestra, which he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms. Music Director of English National Opera for 10 years (2006-15), Gardner also has an ongoing relationship with New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

A passionate supporter of young talent, Gardner founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with the Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music, which appointed him their inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014.

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

Ben Glassberg is the Music Director of Opéra de Rouen-Normandie, where upcoming plans include a new production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito and performances of Stravinsky’s Firebird. Since 2019, he has been Principal Conductor of the Glyndebourne Tour, opening his tenure with a production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore. Next season he will conduct a new production of Beethoven’s Fidelio at Glyndebourne and on tour around the UK.

On the concert stage, Glassberg has worked with top orchestras in Europe and around the world. Recent highlights include performances with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2017, he won First Prize at the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors, making his debut with the Orchestre National de Lyon in the final. Following this collaboration, the orchestra created the position of Chef Invité Associé for him; in this role he has conducted a range of repertoire including Strauss’ Alpine Symphony and works by Pépin, Ades, Haydn and others. Future symphonic highlights include debuts with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Chambe de Lausanne, as well as returns to Orchestre du Capitol de Toulouse and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

A lover of theatre, Glassberg also enjoys his work in the opera house. Recent seasons have seen him conduct new productions for English National Opera, La Monnaie/De Munt and the Salzburger Festspiele. In 2020/21, he will conduct a new production of The Turn of the Screw directed by Andrea Breth at La Monnaie in addition to his work in Rouen. Future seasons include returns to ENO and Glyndebourne.

Recordings include a CPE Bach Keyboard Concerto with Shani Diluka and Orchestre Chambre de Paris for Mirare and Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and Tansmann’s Musique du Cour with Thibaut Garcia and Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse for Warner Classics.

Photo by Gerard Collett

Jonathon Heyward is forging a career as one of the most exciting young conductors on the international scene. Winner of the 2015 Besançon International Conducting Competition, he was selected as a Los Angeles Philharmonic Dudamel Conducting Fellow for the 2017-2018 season, later making his subscription debut with Hilary Hahn as part of the orchestra’s Bernstein @ 100 Celebration at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The LA Times declared that he had ‘forged a seamless connection among the music, the orchestra, and the audience’ and that his ‘concert augurs great things to come’.

Named Chief Conductor Designate of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in 2019, a position that commences in January 2021, Heyward recently completed three years as Assistant Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, conducting his first subscription concert with Benjamin Grosvenor, in 2018. Other notable moments with the ensemble include: a 200th birthday concert for the orchestra’s founder, Sir Charles Hallé, with a programme of Hallé’s own Souvenir and Scherzo, Beethoven’s Leonora No. 3 Overture, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 (with Heejae Kim) and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5; a finalist nomination for Young Creative of the Year at the Manchester Culture Awards 2018, in recognition of his extensive community outreach work and commitment to music education as Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra; and a ‘roaringly bold account’ (Bachtrack) of Shostakovich’s thrilling Leningrad Symphony, marking Jonathon’s debut at the Manchester International Festival and culmination of his tenure in Manchester.

Hailed by Sir Mark Elder as ‘a bright rising star of the conducting world’, Heyward’s recent and forthcoming engagements include debuts with the Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Oregon Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Brussels Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Hallé, Württembergisches Kammerorchester, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa in Lisbon, Osaka Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Flanders Symphony, South Netherlands Philharmonic and the Het Gelders Orkest.

Originally trained as a cellist and chamber musician, Heyward commenced his conducting studies at the Boston Conservatory with Andrew Altenbach. In 2013, he became the youngest ever semi-finalist at the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition at the age of 21, and, soon after, was appointed Associate Director of the Hampstead Garden Opera Company in London. In 2016, he completed his postgraduate studies in conducting with Sian Edwards at the Royal Academy of Music.

British conductor Adam Hickox has already shown considerable promise, demonstrating an impressive fluidity of technique and mature interpretation of a wide symphonic and operatic repertoire. He studied with Sian Edwards at the Royal Academy of Music, where he graduated with DipRam and the Ernest Read Prize for Conducting. He was recently announced as Assistant Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons.

Hickox's commitments in Rotterdam include assisting for programmes with their Chief Conductor Lahav Shani, Valery Gergiev and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, amongst others. He was recently awarded the Tanglewood Festival's Conducting Fellowship in 2020, selected out of hundreds of applicants.

In the coming season he will also conduct the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, and recent engagements include the UK premiere of Thomas Larcher's Still for viola and chamber orchestra, with Lawrence Power and Collegium; Music of Exile with members of the ARC Ensemble – conducting and reviving works of exiled Jewish composers from the 1930s; assisting on The Turn of the Screw at English National Opera and concerts at the St Endellion and Klosters Music Festivals. In the last year he has also conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

In Autumn 2020 he has been invited to return to English National Opera to conduct Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are and Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, following his work in Autumn 2019 for Birtwistle's The Mask of Orpheus, assisting Music Director Martyn Brabbins. He recently assisted Leo Hussain at Theater an der Wien, and Raphaël Pichon at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in a production directed by Romeo Castellucci of Mozart's Requiem, and in performances of Mozart symphonies, and has also assisted and worked together with Ryan Wigglesworth, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Jac van Steen and Marin Alsop.

Hickox is a graduate of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, where he studied music and composition with Robin Holloway, and was the conductor of the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, he co-founded the Endelienta Ensemble, which brings together postgraduate instrumentalists for a series of concerts in Cornwall.

‘Unmatched for podium presence’ (New York Classical Review) and with an ‘ability to create viscerally arresting performances’ (LA Times), Susanna Mälkki is one of today’s most sought-after conductors in the world.

Mälkki continues to guest-conduct at the very highest level, with recent appearances including return visits to the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, and the Münchner Philharmoniker and Orchestre national de Lyon.

This is Mälkki’s fourth season as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, with plans including premieres by leading national composers Kaija Saariaho and Lotta Wennäkoski and a new work by Felipe Lara. As part of her third season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mälkki paid tribute to the late Oliver Knussen with his Violin Concerto. She was previously Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

A renowned opera conductor, Mälkki was to make her debut at the postponed 2020 Festival d’Aix en Provence, conducting the world premiere of Saariaho’s new opera, Innocence, having returned to the Opéra national de Paris to conduct Philippe Boesmans’ Yvonne, princesse de Bourgogne. In 2018, she debuted at the Wiener Staatsoper in Gottfried von Einem’s Dantons Tod; December 2016 marked her debut at The Metropolitan Opera for its premiere of Saariaho’s L’amour de loin.

A former student of the Sibelius Academy, Mälkki studied with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. In June 2010, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Other awards include the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, Musical America’s 2017 Conductor of the Year and the Nordic Council Music Prize.

Photo by Simon Fowler

Following eight years as Music Director, Ludovic Morlot is now Conductor Emeritus of the Seattle Symphony. During his time there, Morlot’s innovative programming has encompassed not only his choice of repertoire, but theatrical productions and performances outside the traditional concert hall space. There have been numerous collaborations with musicians from different genres, commissions and world premieres. Under Morlot’s baton, 19 recordings have been released under the Seattle Symphony Media label, the orchestra has received five Grammy Awards and was also named Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year.

Current plans include Morlot’s debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna Symphony. He is also an Associate Artist of the BBC Philharmonic.

Morlot has a strong commitment to working with young musicians and is scheduled to conduct student orchestras at Yale University and at the Royal Academy of Music, as well as returning to the Aspen Festival. He is Artistic Director of the National Youth Orchestra of China and, in 2019, led their European Tour, having conducted their inaugural concerts in New York and China two years earlier.

Morlot has conducted, among others, the Berliner Philharmoniker, Czech Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared at the BBC Proms, Wien Modern and Edinburgh International Festival. Other recent notable performances have included the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Houston Symphony. Morlot has a particularly strong connection with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which he has conducted in subscription concerts in Boston, at Tanglewood and on a tour to the west coast of America.

Morlot was Chief Conductor of La Monnaie for three years, during which time he conducted several new productions including La clemenza di Tito, Jenůfa and Pelléas et Mélisande, as well as concert performances in both Brussels and at the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival.

Trained as a violinist, Morlot studied conducting at the Monteux School & Music Festival, Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music. He is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington School of Music and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.

Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco

Valentina Peleggi is Music Director Designate of the Richmond Symphony (Virginia). Described by the BBC Music Magazine as a 'rising star', Peleggi has led orchestras from around the world, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Orchestra of Wales, Norrkoping Symphony (Norway), Orchestra della Toscana and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and will shortly release her first CD on Naxos.

Originally from Florence, Peleggi was the first Italian woman to enter the conducting program at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and more recently was honoured with the title of Associate. Currently a Mackerras Fellow with the English National Opera and Guest Music Director with the Theatro São Pedro in São Paulo, Brazil, Peleggi previously served as Resident Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of their professional symphonic chorus. She won the 2014 Conducting Prize at the Festival International de Inverno Campos do Jordão, received a Bruno Walter Foundation Scholarship at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California, and the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship 2015-2017 under Marin Alsop.

Photo by Bo Lutoslawski

Sir Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal Academy of Music.

From 1980 to 1998, Sir Simon was Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and was appointed Music Director in 1990. He moved to Berlin in 2002 and held the positions of Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker until he stepped down in 2018. He became Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra in September 2017 and spent the 2017-18 season at the helm of both ensembles.

Music education is of supreme importance to Sir Simon and his partnership with the Berliner Philharmoniker broke new ground with their education programme, Zukunft@Bphil, earning him the Jan Amos Comenius Prize, the Schiller Prize from the city of Mannheim, a Golden Camera and a Urania Medal. He and the Berliner Philharmoniker were also appointed International UNICEF Ambassadors in 2007 – the first time this honour has been conferred on an artistic ensemble.

Sir Simon has also been awarded several prestigious personal honours including a knighthood, becoming a member of the Order of Merit and being given the Freedom of the City of London.

Sir Simon has longstanding relationships with the leading orchestras in London, Europe and the USA, initially working closely with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra. He regularly conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and is also a Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Founding Patron of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Photo by Oliver Helbig

Joel Sandelson recently completed two years as Assistant Conductor at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Leverhulme Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and continues as director of Wond’rous Machine, a London-based period instrument orchestra. He graduated from Cambridge University in 2016 with a double starred first in music, receiving multiple prizes, and then studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with Sian Edwards, gaining the DipRAM prize.

In various settings he has conducted orchestras including the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Hallé, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of St John’s and Red Note Ensemble. He won third prize at the Siemens-Hallé International Conductors Competition 2020, reached the final 12 at the Malko Competition for Young Conductors 2018 and won first prize in the Cambridge University Conducting Competition in 2014 and 2015.

He has assisted conductors including Thomas Dausgaard, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Trevor Pinnock, Yan Pascal Tortelier and John Wilson. He has also studied at Tanglewood as well as with conductors including Martyn Brabbins, Sir Roger Norrington, Mark Stringer, Jorma Panula, Thomas Søndergård and Joseph Swensen. He was conductor of the Barbican Chamber Orchestra 2013-17, and in Cambridge he was Conducting Scholar of the Cambridge University Music Society for two years, conducting concerts with the university’s flagship symphony orchestra at home and on tours in Europe.

Originally a cellist, highlights have included several recitals at Wigmore Hall, concertos with orchestras in the UK and Europe, premieres of solo and chamber works by Lowell Liebermann, Sir Nicholas Jackson and Kamran Ince, chamber collaborations with the Endellion and Celan Quartets, and success in several national competitions, including reaching the strings final of BBC Young Musician. As a baroque cellist, he has performed with ensembles including La Serenissima and members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Internationally renowned and Olivier Award-winning conductor Mark Wigglesworth is one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, as much at home in the opera house as the concert hall. Through a broad repertoire ranging from Mozart to Boulez, he has forged enduring relationships with many orchestras and opera houses throughout the world.

Wigglesworth has enjoyed a long relationship with English National Opera (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Cosi fan Tutte, Falstaff, Katya Kabanova, Parsifal, The Force of Destiny, The Magic Flute, Jenůfa, Don Giovanni and Lulu). Operatic engagements elsewhere include the Royal Opera House (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) and The Metropolitan Opera (The Marriage of Figaro), as well as at the Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Real, The Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne and Opera Australia. In 2017, he received the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.

On the concert platform, highlights include performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Wigglesworth’s recordings include a critically acclaimed complete cycle of the Shostakovich Symphonies with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic; Mahler’s Symphony No 6 in A minor and Symphony No 10 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; a disc of English music with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes with Glyndebourne; and the Brahms Piano Concertos with Stephen Hough.

He has written articles for the Guardian and the Independent, made a six-part TV series for the BBC, Everything to Play For, and held positions as Associate Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and, most recently, Music Director of English National Opera. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. His book, The Silent Musician: Why Conducting Matters, was published in October 2018 by Faber & Faber.

Photo by Ben Ealovega