Peter Stark — Conductor and Conducting Teacher

Biography

Peter Stark’s performances as a conductor are exhilarating, imaginative and inspiring. At the heart of all his work lies a passion and commitment to the study and practice of music to profit humanity. Peter is Rehearsal Director to the European Union Youth Orchestra and Professor of Conducting at London’s Royal College of Music. He has taught over six hundred private students, and his acclaimed courses in conducting have taken him across the world. His reputation as a teacher and mentor is internationally renowned.

Whilst having performed with a number of the world’s leading ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra Peter fosters a hunger to work with any orchestra that plays with spirit and enthusiasm.

Peter’s growing media profile includes his appointment as series consultant to the popular BBC television series ‘Maestro’ and regular screen appearances as a mentor. For this role Peter was responsible for the training of eight ‘celebrity’ students as orchestral conductors. Peter has since made live ‘Maestro’ webcam commentaries for the BBC Proms and a subsequent TV series.

In addition to his work with the world’s finest students, Peter has conducted youth orchestras ranging from the Hertfordshire County Youth Orchestra (Principal Conductor since 1994) to the New South Wales Public Schools’ Symphony Orchestra in Australia, the Ung Filharmonie of Norway and the Toyota City Orchestra in Japan. He was Principal Conductor to the Arabian Youth Orchestra in Dubai. Between 1985 and 2010 Peter was Conductor in Residence of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Training

• Royal College of Music, London; 1973-7. Conducting with Norman Del Mar, violin with Leonard Hirsch
• Canford Summer School of Music, England; 1976-8. Conducting with George Hurst
• Vienna ’Meisterkurse’; 1980. Conducting with Sir Charles Mackerras

Conductor

Orchestras including:

• BBC Concert Orchestra
• BBC National Orchestra of Wales
• Berlin Symphony Orchestra
• Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
• English Chamber Orchestra
• English Northern Philharmonia
• Flanders Radio Symphony Orchestra
• Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra
• Hallé Orchestra
• London Mozart Players
• London Symphony Orchestra
• Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
• Muscat Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
• Norwegian National Ballet Orchestra
• Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
• Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
• Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra
• Sinfonieorchester Aachen
• Welsh National Opera
• West of England Philharmonic Orchestra (Artistic Director; 2000 – 2010)

Violinist

• Orchestra of Welsh National Opera; 1978-88. (Principal 2nd Violin, 1985-88)
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; 1981-3

Assistant to

• Vladimir Ashkenazy
• Pierre Boulez (Schoenberg – ‘Gurrelieder’. BBC Promenade Concert, 1987)
• Sir Colin Davis
• Sir Andrew Davis
• Bernard Haitink
• Lord Menuhin
• Sir Roger Norrington
• Tadaaki Otaka
• Vasily Petrenko
• Sir Simon Rattle
• Mstislav Rostropovich
• Klaus Tennstedt

Media

• Series Consultant to BBC ‘Maestro’, BBC television, 2008
• Many recordings for BBC Radio, including; Mahler ‘Resurrection Symphony’, Shostakovich Symphony no 10, Arnold – Symphony no 5, many contemporary programmes, ‘Discovering Music’ etc
• Subject of a television film made for HTV about a tour to Denmark and Sweden in 1993
• CDs with music by Britten, Copland, Elgar, Mahler, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Sibelius and Vaughan Williams
• 2006 recording of Edwin Roxburgh’s ‘Saturn’, NMCD119

Jury

• KSO International Conducting Competition, 2021
• The Khachaturian International Competition, Conducting 2021

Conservatoires and Universities

In demand from all the senior conservatoires in London. He has conducted concerts with all on a regular basis, particularly Royal College of Music (Professor of Conducting, 2007-present), Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Trinity College of Music (Senior Fellow of Conducting and Orchestral Studies, 1997-2004); Junior Academy, Royal Academy of Music. (Professor of Conducting, 1988-2010). He is also frequently used as adjudicator. In 2020 was appointed Distinguished Professor of Conducting to the China Conservatory of Music, Beijing.

Ongoing commitments to the universities of the United Kingdom include regular performances with Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra, Oxford University Orchestra and the University of London Symphony Orchestra

Peter is also listed on the Royal College of Music’s conducting faculty page.