About Us

Edward Gardner - Principal Guest Conductor

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 SealMichael Seal has established a reputation as one of the UK's most versatile conductors, his career going from strength to strength, conducting orchestras both across the UK and abroad.

In March 2011, he was appointed Associate Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The appointment recognised his work as Assistant Conductor, the first in their history, and the special relationship he has built between himself and the orchestra.

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 special bond with the CBSO Youth Orchestra, conducting them on numerous occasions, and being involved with them since its foundation. He is also Artistic Advisor and Conductor for the CBSOYO 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 made his debut with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and in 2011 he has debuts with both the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. In September 2011 he returns to Buenos Aires to conduct the Orquestra Academica del Teatro Colon.

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 concert of Beethoven and Nielsen on 18 April, a tribute to R D Burman on 18 May and Schools and Family concerts. .

Michael studied violin and composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire and has studied conducting with Jonathan Del Mar, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons 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. Halsey holds the position of Chief Conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir, frequently collaborating with such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado and Marek Janowski. 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. He is in his seventh season as Principal Conductor, Choral Programme for The Sage Gateshead and works on numerous choral projects each season at the venue, including regular concerts conducting the Northern Sinfonia.

Upcoming projects for Halsey with the Berlin Radio Choir include performances of Bizet's Carmen at the Salzburg Easter Festival 2012 with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle. He will furthermore prepare the choir for Tallis' 40-part motet Spem in alium and Antonio Lotti's Crucifixus, in a programme with Mahler's Eighth Symphony to conclude musikfest berlin, as well as for Jonathan Harvey's grand new work Weltethos which will receive its world premiere under the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle. The German Choral Association has invited the choir and Simon Halsey to be Artists-in-Residence at chor.com 2011 in Dortmund where Simon Halsey will be directing the Brahms Requiem in a sing-along concert and presenting his new book and DVD Master Class Chorleitung, published by Schott Music.

Highlights of Simon Halsey's work in Birmingham during the 2011/12 season include Symphony Hall's 21st anniversary concerts in June where he will be conducting the CBSO and its Chorus in Elgar's final, deeply personal masterpiece The Music Makers. At the Sage Gateshead, Halsey will be conducting the Northern Sinfonia and Chorus in a programme featuring works by Bach, Mozart and David Lang's I Never.

Recent highlights for Halsey have included a major choral project at New York's Carnegie Hall featuring Mahler symphonies conducted by Valery Gergiev. Halsey himself conducted the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne in performances of J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion, as well as guest engagements with the Bavarian Radio Choir, Netherlands Radio Choir and Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

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 February 2011 Halsey received his third Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance for the recording of L'Amour de Loin by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, having previously won a Grammy in 2009 for the recording of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and a Grammy in 2008 for the choir's recording of Brahms's German Requiem with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Rattle.

In addition to the three Grammy winning recordings, Halsey has made four recordings conducting the Berlin Radio Choir: Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem recorded on Coviello Classics, XL, a disc of choral music including works by Tallis, 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.

In January 2011, Simon Halsey was presented with the prestigious Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse, Germany's Order of Merit by State Cultural Secretary André Schmitz in Berlin. This is in recognition of outstanding services to choral music in Germany, having positioned the Rundfunkchor Berlin as an internationally renowned chorus and also acted as an ambassador for choral music in Germany.