Music Director
Sir Mark Elder has been Music Director of the Hallé since September 2000, during which time the orchestra’s considerable achievements have been recognised in significant awards, an enhanced international profile, and popular and critical acclaim. Highlights of the 2009–10 season, during which Sir Mark celebrates his 10th anniversary with the orchestra, include his and the Hallé’s major role in a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
He appears regularly with many of the world’s leading orchestras and in this country he enjoys close associations with the London Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Sir Mark has appeared annually at the BBC Proms for many years including, in 1987 and 2006, at the televised Last Night of the Proms and, from 2003, in concerts with the Hallé. He was Music Director of English National Opera (1979–93), Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1992–95) and Music Director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the USA (1989–94), and has also held positions as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and of the London Mozart Players.
His work in opera takes him to the world’s major houses and during his years at ENO he brought acclaim to the company for its work in London, as well as leading tours to the USA (including the Metropolitan Opera, New York) and Russia (including the Bolshoi in Moscow and the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg).
He has made recordings with a range of orchestras including, since 2003, a series of highly praised discs on the Hallé’s own CD label in repertoire ranging from Elgar (including The Dream of Gerontius), Richard Strauss, Debussy, Nielsen and Wagner to Colin Matthews. Recent opera recordings include Donizetti’s Dom Sébastien and Imelda de’Lambertazzi for Opera Rara.
Last autumn Sir Mark conducted the Hallé in Brazil, Chile and Argentina and, on a separate tour, Germany and Austria. Forthcoming orchestral engagements, apart from his commitment to the Hallé, include the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony (with which he conducted a three-week Dvorák Festival in June), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras and the OAE.
Recent operatic engagements have taken him to the Metropolitan Opera New York, Opéra National de Paris, Glyndebourne, Lyric Opera Chicago, Teatro Comunale Florence and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where he opened the 2009–>10 season with Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix. Last season he conducted an acclaimed performance of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung in concert with the Hallé. Future operatic engagements include Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur and Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride for Covent Garden, and Britten’s Billy Budd with which he opens the Glyndebourne season next May.
Sir Mark Elder was knighted in 2008, and was awarded the CBE in 1989. He won an Olivier Award in 1991 for his outstanding work at ENO and in 2006 he was named Conductor of the Year by the Royal Philharmonic Society.
Sir Mark Elder on Hallé Play
