Meet the Conductors

Edward Gardner - Principal Guest Conductor from September 2011

Edward GardnerENO Music Director Edward Gardner has been appointed to the position of Principal Guest Conductor from September 2011. Edward Gardner will conduct three to four weeks of concerts each season with the CBSO as Principal Guest Conductor for a period of three years. This announcement comes at a key time for the CBSO as it celebrates its 90th Birthday, and has been enjoying increased audiences and extensive worldwide critical acclaim with Andris Nelsons, Music Director since 2008. Read more

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Michael Seal - Associate CBSO Conductor

Read an interview with Michael Seal here

Mike SealBorn in London in 1970, Michael Seal has begun to establish a reputation as one of the UK's most versatile conductors. Following his appointment as CBSO Assistant Conductor in 2005, his career has gone from strength to strength, conducting orchestras both across the UK and abroad.

Now in his fifth year as Assistant Conductor, Michael has conducted the CBSO in numerous highly acclaimed projects. He has conducted them in a performance of Lutoslawski's 'Chain I' at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, given world premieres of music by Richard Causton and Jonathan Girling, appeared with them at the Aldeburgh and Malvern Festivals, as well as venues in London, Manchester and the Midlands. His first Subscription Concert in March 2007, with a programme including Hugh Wood’s Piano Concerto with Joanna MacGregor as soloist, and Walton's Symphony No.1, was broadcast by BBC Radio 3. Michael has also collaborated with Saregama and the CBSO in projects featuring Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Sonu Niigaam, culminating in the release of the ground-breaking CD, Rafi Resurrected. Michael has also forged a special relationship with the CBSO Youth Orchestra, conducting them on numerous occasions. He is also Artistic Advisor and Conductor for the CBSO Youth Orchestra Academy, a chamber orchestra formed in 2007, and conducted them in Birmingham and the Three Choirs Festival.

Michael has conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra. In 2010 - 11, he makes his debut with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and makes return visits to both the RPO and Orquestra Filarmonica de Buenos Aires. Michael has been Principal Conductor of the Sinfonia of Birmingham since 2002, frequently performing concerti with CBSO members and leading them on highly successful tours of the Rhine and Mosel valleys, Tuscany, Holland and Poland. He has also been a regular guest conductor with the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra since they gave him his conducting debut in 1996. Michael has also conducted the Midland Concert Orchestra, Birmingham University Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra, including tours of the Czech Republic in 2008 and Barcelona in 2010.

His future work with the CBSO includes a subscription concert on 24 March 2011, Schools and Family concerts and a Film music concert in October 2010. He will also be conducting the CBSO YO Academy in July 2010.

Michael studied violin and composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire and has studied conducting with Jonathan Del Mar, Sakari Oramo and Jorma Panula.

Simon Halsey
Chorus Director: City of Birmingham Symphony Choruses

Simon Halsey - Chorus DirectorSimon Halsey is one of the world’s leading conductors of choral repertoire, regularly conducting prestigious orchestras and choirs worldwide. He is Chief Conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir frequently working alongside such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado and Marek Janowski. His work preparing the choir for recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has earned him a Grammy award two years running. He has been Chorus Director of the CBSO Chorus for over 25 years, and works closely there with the orchestra’s Music Director Andris Nelsons. Halsey is in his fifth season as Principal Conductor, Choral Programme for The Sage Gateshead. He also holds the position of consultant editor for Faber Music in the UK. Halsey regularly conducts choral projects with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra.

Highlights of the 2009-10 season include conducting Brahms Requiem and Schubert Mass No.5 with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir. Halsey will also conduct the orchestra and choir in their final concert of the season in an outdoor concert broadcast live on television. The choir will also perform in the Berlin performances of Götterdæmmerung at the Salzburg Festival and undertake a tour to Turkey. In the UK the CBSO Chorus will perform Berlioz’s Requiem with Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus under Valery Gergiev and will tour to Kuala Lumpur in July 2010. Halsey will also bring together 300 young singers from the country’s top youth choirs to perform Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms.

Recent highlights have included conducting the German premiere of James Macmillan’s St John Passion with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir. Halsey also conducted the premier of Christian Jost’s Angst in Berlin and prepared the choir for performances of Ligeti’s Lux aeterna with Metzmacher, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Rattle and Mahler’s Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Abbado. During 2008-9 Halsey travelled with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to Cuenca, Spain to conduct a programme that included works by Szymanowski and Finzi. In the same season Halsey acted as chorus master for two performances of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with the Philharmonia and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Halsey has worked on countless major recording projects, many of which have won major awards including several Gramophone Awards and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. In 2009 Halsey received his second Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance for the recording of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms having previously won a Grammy in 2008 for the choir’s recording of Brahms’ Requiem with Berliner Philarmoniker and Rattle.

In addition to the two Grammy winning recordings, Halsey has made three recordings conducting the Berlin Radio Choir: XL, a disc of choral music including works by Tallis, J.S Bach, Kodály and Harvey recorded on Harmonia Mundi; Christian Jost’s Angst and Simple Gifts, featuring works by Britten, Copland, Barber and Tippett, both on the Coviello label. With the CBSO Chorus Halsey has most recently recorded Julian Anderson’s Four American Choruses for NMC and English Choral Favourites for EMI. Other landmark recordings include Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle, Dame Janet Baker and John Shirley-Quirk; Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on EMI, in a live recording with the CBSO Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with CBSO Sir Simon Rattle Dame Janet Baker and Arleen Augér on EMI.