Sir Mark Elder CBE Conductor

Sir Mark Elder is Music Director of the Hallé.  He enjoys close associations with the London Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Chicago Symphony. He was Music Director of English National Opera from 1979 to 1993 and has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras.  He has appeared annually at the Proms in London for many years including in 1987 and 2006 in the internationally televised Last Night of the Proms.

He has appeared regularly in many of the most prominent international opera houses, including Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Opéra National de Paris, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Glyndebourne and was the first British conductor to conduct a new production at the Bayreuth Festival.

Recent and forthcoming symphonic engagements, apart from his commitment to the Hallé, include the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Gürzenich Orchester, Australian Youth Orchestra, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Britten Sinfonia and the OAE.  He will conduct four of the 2012 BBC Proms including performances with the Hallé and Aldeburgh World Orchestra as well as with the BBC Symphony at The First Night of the Proms.  Operatic engagements include King Roger at the Bregenz Festival, Tannhäuser at the Opéra National de Paris, Billy Budd for Glyndebourne, Wonderful Town with the Hallé and several productions for Covent Garden, including The Tsar’s Bride, Fidelio and Wozzeck..

In November 2011 he co-presented BBCTV’s four part series ‘Symphony’ and in 2012 was chair of the judging panel on BBCTV 2’s Maestro at the Opera.

Sir Mark Elder was knighted in 2008 and awarded the CBE in 1989.  In May 2006 he was named Conductor of the Year by the Royal Philharmonic Society. He received Gramophone Awards in 2009, 2010 and 2011 for his Hallé recordings of Götterdämmerung, The Dream of Gerontius, The Kingdom and Elgar’s Violin Concerto.

In April 2011, he took up the position of Artistic Director of Opera Rara, with whom he is planning several recording projects over the next 5 years   He was appointed Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2011.