OUR PRESIDENT
Martyn Brabbins is the former Music Director of the English National Opera (2016-2023). An inspirational force in British music, Brabbins has had a busy opera career since his early days at the Kirov and more recently at La Scala, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and regularly in Lyon, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Antwerp. He guests with top international orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw, San Francisco Symphony, DSO Berlin and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, as well as the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony and most of the other leading UK orchestras. He is a popular figure at the BBC Proms, who in 2019 commissioned 14 living composers to write a birthday tribute to him. Known for his advocacy of British composers, he has conducted hundreds of world premieres across the globe. He has recorded nearly 150 CDs to date, including prize-winning discs of operas by Korngold, Birtwistle and Harvey.
He was Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 1994-2005, Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic 2009-2015, Chief Conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic 2012-2016, and Artistic Director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music 2005-2007. He is Prince Consort Professor of Conducting at the Royal College of Music, Visiting Professor at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire and Artistic Advisor to the Huddersfield Choral Society alongside his duties at ENO, and has for many years supported professional, student and amateur music-making at the highest level in the UK.
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In 21/22 Brabbins conducted Cunning Little Vixen and The Valkyrie at English National Opera, as a precursor to the complete Ring cycle in coming seasons; at the Opera de Lyon he conducted the world premiere of Thierry Escaich’s second opera, Shirine. He conducted both the BBC Scottish and the BBC Symphony at the 2021 BBC Proms in programmes ranging from Pergolesi to Beethoven to Stravinsky, returning later in the season to the BBC Symphony for their ongoing Vaughan Williams symphony cycle together at the Barbican and for Hyperion Records.
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He premiered Brett Dean in Wroclaw and conducts Britten with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie and Berio with the Antwerp Symphony. During the pandemic in 20/21 he was much in demand in the UK, conducting the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish and National Orchestra of Wales, eventually also making it out to Amsterdam to conduct Ades, Elgar and Vaughan Williams with the Netherlands Philharmonic.
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His discography ranges from Romantic to contemporary repertoire, with over 60 recordings for Hyperion Records alone, notably of Elgar, Walton and Tippett. He received a Gramophone Award for Birtwistle’s Mask of Orpheus with the BBC Symphony (NMC), the Cannes Opera Award for Korngold’s Die Kathrin with the BBC Concert Orchestra (CPO), and the Grand Prix du Disque for Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream.
Brabbins studied composition in London and conducting with Ilya Musin in Leningrad, subsequently winning first prize at the 1988 Leeds Conductors’ Competition which launched his international career.
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