Guest Conductors

Described by players in his Watford Youth Sinfonia as a conductor who ‘draws emotion out of each individual player’ and ‘has a similar musical maturity to much older conductors’, Daniel Hogan is a 24-year-old British conductor who is currently studying with a full scholarship for a Masters in Conducting at the Royal College of Music. 

Daniel formed the Watford Youth Sinfonia when he was only 17 years old, and in the seven years since, they have performed repertoire rarely tackled by youth orchestras under his leadership, including Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’, Respighi’s ‘Roman Festivals’ and Mahler’s 9th Symphony. Daniel more recently formed the Sinfonia Perdita, a young professionals orchestra consisting of players from the London conservatoires, who are dedicated to performing masterworks neglected by the standard repertoire. Working with these groups, Daniel has collaborated with some of the country’s most exciting soloists such as Isata Kanneh-Mason and Laure Chan, as well as some of the country’s most respected living composers, including David Matthews, Joseph Horovitz and Matthew Taylor. 

Daniel received a First Class Honours for his Music Degree at the University of York, where he enjoyed broadening his versatility as a conductor, being as at home in the opera pit, Music Directing Ravel’s ‘L’enfant et les Sortileges’ and Mozart’s ‘The Abduction from the Seraglio’ for the university’s Opera Society, as directing vastly complex scores by Tristan Murail and Tansy Davies for the contemporary music group ‘Chimera’. 

Daniel is known as a conductor with ‘real stature, depth of knowledge, insight and understanding’, but also as one who ‘commands high levels of respect and affection from orchestral musicians of all ages and skill’. He is very popular with non-professional orchestras, having quickly been elected Music Director of the Kew Sinfonia, Chess Players and Orpington Symphony Orchestra. He also regularly deputy conducts for a long list of the area’s finest non-professional orchestras which include the Hertford Symphony Orchestra, Finchley Symphony Orchestra, St Albans Symphony Orchestra and Richmond Orchestra.

Daniel is lucky to have had a wealth of the finest mentorship available in the UK, having studied intensively with Denise Ham and Rebecca Miller, and now at the Royal College with Toby Purser, Peter Stark and Howard Williams. Daniel has also taken part in masterclasses led by Martyn Brabbins, Jac van Steen, Ben Gernon and Sir Antonio Pappano.

Michal Oren is an award-winning conductor from Tel-Aviv, Israel. Recently, she held the Female Conductor Trainee position at Opera North in Leeds, UK (2024-2025). For the past two years, Michal joined the Women Conductors’ Programme of the Royal Philharmonic Society with the Royal Northern Sinfonia. In June 2024, she was invited by maestro Martyn Brabbins to a shared concert with the London-based Salomon Orchestra and participated in his masterclass with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow.

Michal won the 1st prize in the 4th International Academy and Competition of Orchestra Conducting in Estoril, Portugal (2023) and the 2nd prize of the 3rd International Orchestral Conducting Competition “Universidad de Almeria”, Spain (2023). Recently, Michal completed her Professional Diploma in Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London supported by a full scholarship through the Bianca Falcone Sorrell Award. She previously earned her master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Royal College of Music as a Victor and Lilian Hochhauser Scholar. She was awarded distinction for her two Bachelors of Music in orchestral conducting and clarinet performance from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at the Tel-Aviv University. She was the Residence Music Scholar of the Robert Anderson Trust (2022-2025), and since 2015, a scholar of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation (receiving the highest distinction award for 2024-2026). Michal is also the founder and musical curator of the “Museum Orchestra” of the Petach-Tikva Museum of Art in Israel.