Biographies
Adrian Brown, Musical Director
Adrian Brown comes from a distinguished line of pupils of Sir Adrian Boult. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London, he studied with Sir Adrian and went on to work with him for some years. He remains the only British conductor to have reached the finals of the Karajan Conductors’ Competition: the Berlin Philharmonic was the first professional orchestra he conducted. Sir Adrian said of his work: ‘He has always impressed me as a musician of exceptional attainments who has all the right gifts and ideas to make him a first-class conductor.’
In 1992 Adrian Brown was engaged to conduct one of the great orchestras of the world, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, with an immediate invitation to return, and in1998 he was invited by Sir Roger Norrington to work with the Camerata Salzburg, one of Europe’s foremost chamber orchestras
Adrian has worked regularly with many leading British orchestras, including the City of Birmingham Symphony, the BBC Symphony, the BBC Scottish Symphony and the London Sinfonietta. He is also a great proponent of contemporary music and has several first performances to his credit.
Working with young musicians is an area where Adrian Brown has made a singular contribution to the musical life of not only this country, but also that of Europe, Japan and the Philippines. He has been a frequent visiting conductor both of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, working closely with Sir Colin Davis and Sir Roger Norrington, and the National Youth Wind Orchestra. He regularly runs courses for young musicians and his success in this general area was recognised when he was given the Novello Award for Youth Orchestras at the 1989 Edinburgh Festival conducting Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra. He has been Stoneleigh’s Musical Director for thirty-five years, and conducted their Diamond Jubilee Concert in March 2005.
He has conducted at the Royal Academy of Music on a number of occasions and worked with their Senior Orchestra. He has been a regular chairman of the jury for the National Association of Youth Orchestras’ Conducting Competition, taking the Chair again in January 2006. In 1996 he went to Japan to work with the Toyama Toho Academy Orchestra, a visit that was received with much acclaim.
Many engagements have included a performance of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, Verdi's Requiem and the works of Berlioz, Elgar and Vaughan Williams, all much admired. He received rave reviews in The Guardian for a performance of Strauss’s Feuersnot with the Chelsea Opera Group and for his Ein Heldenleben. He has performed successful concerts with the Salomon Orchestra and Goldsmith’s Sinfonia, returning to the Salomon in February 2005 for a concert at St. John's, Smith Square, performing British music including Tippett's Concerto for Orchestra, among many concerts celebrating the Centenary of Sir Michael, and receiving great acclamation for his interpretation.
In 2005, Adrian conducted his 25th season as Music Director of Bromley Symphony Orchestra and Waveney Sinfonia. He also joined the panel of jury members of Music for Youth as well as accepting invitations to perform with the Isle of Wight Symphony, Bromley Ecumenical Singers and Herts Philharmonia, and touring Dresden and Prague with SYO.
Last year included performances of Shostakovich with Suffolk Sinfonia in St Edmundsbury Cathedral and with Stoneleigh at LSO St Luke’s; also a return to Elgar/Payne Symphony No.3 in a concert of Anthony Payne’s work. He again joined the Panel for the Making Music Awards and went on tour to Salzburg for a Mozart Festival with SYO.
The 2007-8 Season has included so far a tour to Provence with SYO, concerts in Snape Maltings celebrating the Elgar Anniversary, and a performance of ‘Hansel und Gretel’ and other engagements with Hunts Phiharmonic and Southgate Symphony; also a full season with Bromley Symphony of Elgar’s 2nd, Bruckner 7th, Tchaikovsky 4th and ‘The Planets’.
Adrian Brown was one of a hundred musicians presented with a prestigious Classic FM Award at their Tenth Birthday Honours Celebration in June 2002.
Lindsay Ryan, Associate Conductor
Lindsay has a Bachelor of Music (French Horn) and a Bachelor of Teaching (Honours) gained from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She also has an Associate of Music, Australia, Performance Diploma from the Australian Music Examinations Board.
Lindsay has a passion for conducting that commenced in Australia prior to her arrival in London in 2006, including the completion of her Australian Choral Conductors Education and Training choral conducting qualification in 2000 under the tutelage of Graham Abbott and Faye Dumont and studies at the University of Melbourne in 2001 with Professor John Hopkins. In May 2008, Lindsay was invited to participate in the RNCM conducting workshop with Mark Elder, Mark Heron and Timothy Reynish.
Her performance experience in London has included performing with the Bromley Symphony Orchestra and Lewisham Concert Band as well as freelancing.
In addition, Lindsay’s expertise includes the establishment of ensembles in various schools, enabling young people to experience creative music-making in choirs, bands, orchestras and drumming ensembles. In 2008 she was the Musical Director and Conductor of Cator Park School’s inaugural performance of “The Wizard of Oz” at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, as well as conducting the school’s choir at the O2 Arena for Young Voices, Bromley School Proms and the orchestra, brass ensemble and string group for school and community events.
Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra is Lindsay’s debut into the conducting arena in London.
Dan Shilladay, Assistant Conductor
Dan read music at the University of Birmingham, where he studied composition with Vic Hoyland and viola with Christopher Yates, before completing a masters degree in contemporary music studies at the University of York with John Stringer (conducting and analysis) and Clare Barwick (modern and baroque viola). During a further year of study at the Royal College of Music with Susie Meszaros and Annette Isserlis, he was one of 21 period instrument performers selected for the Jerwood/Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Scheme for Young Players, and was also invited by Martyn Brabbins to perform with the Cheltenham Festival Academy. Dan is now a London based freelance musician, and in addition to being a member of the 2008 Southbank Sinfonia, he performs with, among others, the OAE, the English Concert and the English Baroque Soloists, with whom he participated in the recent Covent Garden production of Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera. Alongside period instrument performance, he is especially interested in contemporary music, and has played in the York and Cheltenham festivals.
Richard Laing, Associate Conductor
Since winning the sinfonia ViVA Conducting Scholarship in 2001, Richard has established a reputation as one of the most exciting and versatile young conductors in Britain. In 2002 he graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire with a Master's degree, a postgraduate diploma in conducting, and the Conservatoire's Postgraduate Prize for the most outstanding contribution to the musical life of the college, subsequently working intensively on operatic conducting with Diego Masson at Dartington, supported by the Foyle Foundation.
Richard has conducted in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. He is Music Director of the critically-acclaimed Birmingham-based professional opera company Operamus, Music Director of the Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, the Leicester Bach Choir, and the Midlands Chorale, Principal Conductor of the Leamington Chamber Orchestra, and a regular guest conductor with Queen’s Park Sinfonia, Hallam Sinfonia, Midlands Sinfonia, Chandos Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra.
Richard is a conductor and coach in the Department of Vocal and Operatic Studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire where he assists Lionel Friend. His operatic performances have included La Traviata and La Bohème (Dartington Festival Opera), Malcolm Williamson’s English Eccentrics (Birmingham Conservatoire), Handel’s Orlando (Pigotts), Adrian Cruft’s Dr Syn (Kent Opera), Noye’s Fludde, Albert Herring and Hansel and Gretel (Operamus). Richard is Associate Conductor of the virtuoso young ensemble Sinfonia Cymru, which regularly tours with Bryn Terfel, and will be conducting the orchestra in venues across Wales in February and March. He is Associate Conductor of the internationally acclaimed Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra in Surrey, assisting Adrian Brown. Richard is in demand as a coach at festivals and summer schools and as a leader of orchestral and choral workshops around the UK. He has premiered many new works and plays the violin for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Orchestra of the Swan, and as a guest leader for the Queen’s Park Sinfonia, Sinfonia of Birmingham and the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra.
In his limited spare time Richard pursues a wide range of academic interests: his undergraduate work in Manchester on John F. Kennedy’s policy in Vietnam won him the Kaiser Award for American History, and he has presented papers on subjects as diverse as Hollywood film, reality TV and the Ring cycle at the International Conferences on Film and Literature at Florida State University and the International Wagner Symposium at the University of Adelaide.