Brian
Wright
conductor
Brian Wright studied conducting as a Gulbenkian scholar in London and Munich, and with George Hurst, Jascha Horenstein and Rudolf Kempe. He won the Silver Medal in the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition at La Scala, Milan, and second prize in the Rupert Foundation Competition with the London Symphony Orchestra. He was Assistant to André Previn and the LSO and then Associate Conductor to the BBC for ten years, conducting concerts and broadcasts with all of the BBC's orchestras.
Brian won particular praise for his performances at the BBC Proms including Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts and Liszt’s Christus with the BBC Symphony and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as for UK premieres of Lutoslawski and Penderecki and world premieres including Robert Simpson’s 7th Symphony. He conducted the BBCSO in an acclaimed BBC2 production with Ballet Rambert of Stravinsky's Pulcinella -
Brian has conducted the LSO, BBCSO, RPO, Philharmonia and London Philharmonic at London’s Royal Festival, Royal Albert and Barbican Halls. He has conducted all of the British orchestras, is a regular guest conductor in Europe, and in Asia has toured in China with the RPO and conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony Orchestras. Brian was most recently a guest conductor in Slovenia and Romania. He has recorded for the EMI, Decca, Teldec, Crystal and Regis Tro labels.
Brian enjoys a close association with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, regularly conducting in their London International Series. Recent concerts with the RPO have included Beethoven’s Eroica & 5th Symphonies, Dvorak’s New World Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony,Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast.
Brian is renowned for his performances of the symphonic choral repertoire. He was Conductor of the BBC Symphony Chorus and Highgate Choral Society and is the longstanding Music Director of Goldsmiths Choral Union in London. He is also Music Director and Conductor of Maidstone Symphony Orchestra, one of the UK’s finest community orchestras.
Brian conducted Berlioz’s spectacular Grande Messe des Morts at the Royal Albert Hall in the RPO’s 2015/16 season, and his season also included Mahler’s 9th Symphony with MSO and an acclaimed performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers with GCU at Cadogan Hall. 2016/17 included Verdi’s Requiem at the RAH with the RPO, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony, Brahms’s Symphony No.4, Sibelius’s Symphony No.2 with MSO, and Bach’s Magnificat, Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum, Haydn’s Nelson Mass & Mozart’s Requiem with GCU at Cadogan Hall. In 2017/18 Brian conducts Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall with the RPO and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 at the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia.
Brian has recently been honoured with a Doctorate by the University of Kent -
BIOGRAPHY