BERLIN OPERA ACADEMY

Conductor

Tom Seligman is one of the UK’s most exciting young conducting talents, with an increasingly impressive portfolio of projects and collaborations behind him.

After studies in Cambridge, Glasgow, London and Amsterdam, he was appointed Musical Co-ordinator and Conductor of the inaugural Cheltenham Festival Academy in 2005, working with some of the most brilliant young musical talents from across the UK, and was invited back to conduct the Brno Philharmonic at the Festival in 2007. He made his BBC Radio 3 debut conducting the Hebrides Ensemble at the 2005 St Magnus Festival in Orkney and took the helm at the Festival 'Musique-Cordiale' in the south of France between 2008 and 2012. He is Principal Conductor of Kensington Chamber Orchestra, and was Director of Hampshire County Youth Orchestra for six years, finishing his tenure with an acclaimed performance of Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony at the opening of the 2011 Winchester Festival. He is also originator and conductor of ‘Rite Up Close’, an innovative interactive workshop and concert introducing The Rite of Spring to audiences of all ages.

He has conducted productions of The Rake's Progress and The Beggar's Opera for Edinburgh Studio Opera and Le nozze di Figaro for Opera East, and assisted Joseph Swensen at the Salzburg Festival and at the BBC Proms. Other opera productions include Handel Theodora and Semele and Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen and Jenůfa. He has worked extensively with the London Symphony Chorus and was chorus-master for the Lucerne Festival Orchestra’s performance of Mahler's 3rd Symphony under Claudio Abbado at the 2007 BBC Proms. As Guest Chorus Director for the Hallé's recording of Elgar's The Kingdom under Sir Mark Elder, he garnered critical acclaim for the Choir's performance and won the 2011 Gramophone Award for best choral recording. Projects with the BBC Symphony Chorus have included concerts at the Barbican and Royal Albert Hall, a Chandos recording of Berlioz Roméo et Juliette and the 2016 Last Night of the Proms.

Tom Seligman made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2010, and has since been regularly invited back, conducting the Royal Ballet in repertoire including Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote, Liam Scarlett’s Frankenstein, Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale and the world premiere of Metamorphosis Titian, which was beamed live to ‘big screens’ around the UK and featured in the BBC’s ‘Imagine’ series. His 2013 ROH performance of The Nutcracker was relayed to cinema screens around the world. He has conducted Jewels and The Nutcracker for New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, The Winter's Tale for National Ballet of Canada in Toronto and Shadows of War, The Dream, A Month in the Country and Coppélia for Birmingham Royal Ballet at Sadler’s Wells and on tour. For English National Ballet he has conducted The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Albert Hall and Le Corsaire, Coppélia and Swan Lake around the UK and in China and Singapore. The 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons include performances of 8 different ballets at the Royal Opera House, debuts in Brisbane, Amsterdam, Munich and Copenhagen, and a return to Toronto.