Simon Wright

As a conductor Simon Wright has earned universal respect and acclaim for his interpretations of wide-ranging and of challenging orchestral and choral repertoire. Throughout his professional career, which embraces roles as organist, accompanist, arranger and teacher, he has become established as a musician of enormous integrity, winning the admiration of musicians, audiences and critics alike.

In the UK, Simon Wright has conducted many British orchestras including the Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, English Northern Philharmonia, Northern Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata, English Chamber Orchestra and Northern Chamber Orchestra. A prize-winner in the 1986 Leeds Conducting Competition, Simon Wright has been Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Leeds Festival Chorus since 1975 and Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the York Guildhall Orchestra since 1992.

He is deeply committed to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries and has conducted many orchestral and choral premières, including Dominic Muldowney’s The Fall of Jerusalem, the British première of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Canticum Canticorum, and, most recently, Michael Stimpson’s Clouds of War with the Tallis Chamber Choir and the English Chamber Orchestra. Simon Wright has toured extensively within Europe, appearing at many major festivals, including Edinburgh, and made his American début in New York in 1986.

Recordings, both as conductor and keyboard player, with John Wallace OBE, the Wallace Collection and with the Philharmonia form a major part of his discography which includes recordings on the EMI, Nimbus, Collins Classics, GMN and IMP Masters labels. In 2003 he made his début with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducting a recording of British trumpet concertos with John Wallace, a recording which has recently been released on the Sanctuary Classics label. In January, Simon made his début with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus recording Elgar’ Music Makers and Sea Pictures with Sarah Connolly for Naxos.

Recent among his European engagements have been recordings and concerts with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen and the Philharmonie und Kammerphilharmonie des Mitteldeutschen Rundfunks Leipzig. Recent concert engagements have taken him to the Caribbean with the English Chamber Orchestra and to Oman to conduct the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra. For the last three years he has conducted the English Chamber Orchestra at the Classical Brit Awards held in the Royal Albert Hall and broadcast on national television. He will do so again in May. Last month he returned to conduct the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with whom he made his début in 2004.

Born in Sunderland, Simon Wright was educated at Chetham’s School, Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music. A regular accompanist of the Hallé Choir, often working with Sir John Barbirolli, he won, at the age of 16, a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College. Four years later he was appointed Organist of the Benedictine foundation at Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire, a post which he relinquished last Summer.