Peter Stark - conductor

Hon DMus, Hon FTCL, Hon ARAM, GRSM, ARCM

Peter Stark is Artistic Director to both the West of England Philharmonic Orchestra and Parnassus, Principal Conductor of the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra and Senior Fellow of Conducting at Trinity College of Music. He has recorded many times for BBC Radio 3 and his work has been the subject of a television documentary.

Peter trained in London at the Royal College of Music with Normal Del Mar and in Vienna with Sir Charles Mackerras. He was a finalist in the Vittorio Gui International Competition, a prizewinner in the Leeds Conductors’ Competition and was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal by the Royal College.

He has worked extensively with many of the country’s finest orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and has performed at the Cheltenham, Thaxted and St Albans Festivals. CD recordings of his work include music by Britten, Elgar, Messiaen, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Richard Strauss.

Peter has worked with Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Lord Menuhin, Sir Roger Norrington, Mstislav Rostropovich and Klaus Tennstedt, and has gained an enviable reputation as one who is committed to introducing and inspiring new audiences. He is Leverhulme Professor of Conducting to the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and in 2000 was the recipient of an Honourary Doctorate of Music from the University of the West of England for his “outstanding contribution to music in the West Country”.