HSO Past Conductors 

HSO Conductor and Music Director: Ian Sutherland  (1975-1990)

In 1966 he was appointed Conductor of the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra) in Glasgow. Previously he had been an orchestral and session violinist in London playing in the LPO, Philharmonia, RPO and ECO under such conductors as Boult, Sargent, Groves, Solti and Klemperer. Sutherland was the conductor of the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra until a major restructuring was initiated by BBC in 1972 to reduce its coverage of "light" music, in favour of "pop" music. His remit with the BBC SRO included TV as well as Radio. He was Musical Director for many Light Entertainment series with Stanley Baxter, Kenneth McKellar, Moira Anderson and Andy Stewart The orchestra was officially closed in 1981.

In 1973 Sutherland returned to London and was regularly invited by BBC Radio 2 as guest conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra for the "Friday Night Is Music Night" programme. From 1988 to 1995 he was the principal conductor of the BBC Radio Orchestrauntil it too it was disbanded. During this time he regularly conducted other orchestras across Europe and the UK. These included the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hallé, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic, Graz Symphony, BRTN Philharmonic (Brussels), NDR Philharmonic (Hannover), Dessau Philharmonic, Brazilian National Symphony, Flemish Radio Philharmonic, Maribor Philharmonic, BR Radio Orchestra (Munich), Cape Philharmonic Orchestra (Cape Town) and the orchestras of SWF (Kaiserslautern), NRK (Oslo) and NOS (Hilversum), and the national youth orchestras of Scotland and Norway. During these decades his international career included giving the world premieres of Malcolm Arnold's "Irish Dances", Edward Harper's "Etude for Orchestra ", Robert Farnon's Third Symphony (Edinburgh), John Dankworth's "Escapade" for jazz quartet and chamber orchestra, the British premiere of Darius Millhaud's "A Frenchman in New York", the Scandinavian premiere of Korngold's Violin Concerto, alongside premieres of the symphonic version of the Mike Oldfield/ David Bedford "Tubular Bells" in Glasgow, "Movimentos para Don Jose Haydn" by Rene Staar in Graz and "Rhapsody Brasillieros" by Ney Rosauro in Rio de Janeiro.

In 2015, Iain Sutherland was awarded the Gold Badge of Merit by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for Lifetime Achievement and his unique contribution to British music.

He has also been honoured to conduct for many Royal Charity concerts including the Royal Variety Performance in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at the Palladium; and with star soloists and the English Chamber Orchestra at St. James's Palace, Whitehall Palace, the Barbican and the Royal Albert Hall, attended by the Royal Patrons of the charities involved: TRHs Princess Margaret, Princess Diana, Princess Alexandra, the Duchess of Kent, the Duchess of Gloucester.

HSO Conductor and Music Director: Mark Shanahan  (1990-1999)

Mark Shanahan was born in Manchester, where he attended Chetham’s School. He later attended the University of London and studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with the Sir Henry Wood Scholarship. While still studying at the Royal Academy of Music he won the first prize of the first NAYO Conducting Competition.

Mark Shanahan is active as an opera and orchestral conductor, and he has been associated with the English National Opera. Mark Shanahan has conducted operas in theatres such as La Fenice, Théâtre Graslin, Nationale Reisopera, Opera North, Grange Park Opera, Opera Ireland, English Touring Opera, Marseilles Opera and the Frankfurt Opera.

Guest conducting engagements include concerts at halls such as the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican Centre and Royal Albert Hall with orchestras including the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. He is also Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and Artistic director of the Forest Philharmonic Orchestra.

Shanahan is a Guest Professor of conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, guest conductor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a Visiting conducting Fellow at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

HSO Conductor and Music Director: Gerry Cornelius  (1999-2011)

Gerry Cornelius was born in London and studied music and conducting at Durham University, the Royal Academy of Music and the State Conservatory of St Petersburg where he was in the class of Ilya Musin. 

In 2018/2019 season he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of English National Ballet with whom he has conducted Rite of Spring, Akram Khan’s Giselle, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet at the London Coliseum, Sadler’s Wells Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall and on various foreign tours. Since making UK début at the Almeida Opera Festival, he has conducted many of leading orchestras, opera and ballet companies at home and abroad, including English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera Group, English Touring Opera, English National Ballet, New York City Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hallé, BBC Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Ruhrtriennale, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, musikFabrik Cologne, Festival d’Automne Paris and Spitalfields Festival.

As well as mainstream repertoire, he is particularly in demand to conduct major new works. These include the world premieres of Tansy Davies’ Between Worlds for English National Opera and Catherine Kontz’s Neige in Luxemburg,  the British première of Olga Neuwirth’s American Lulu for the Opera Group at the Edinburgh Festival and subsequently at the Bregenz Festival and the Young Vic, London, Maudite Soit La Guerre for London Sinfonietta, and award-winning new operas and ensemble pieces by George Benjamin, Olga Neuwirth, Thomas Adès, Julian Anderson, Judith Weir, Richard Causton, Tansy Davies, Colin Matthews, Errollyn Wallen, Edward Rushton, Julian Philips and Elena Langer.

Gerry was appointed Music Director with English Touring Opera in 2021.

HSO Conductor and Music Director: Jonathan Mann (2011-2014)

Hailed by Bernard Haitink for the “infectious joy in his conducting and music making”, Jonathan Mann is in demand as both performer and music educator. He has conducted extensively internationally with recent collaborations as diverse as the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Chineke! Youth Orchestra (London) and the Arad State Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania).

He is currently Music Director of UK based Ensemble Cambrica, Artistic Director of the CIAC Conducting Academy and Consultant for Orchestras and Conducting with the Association of Music in International Schools.

At the Jeunesses Musicales International Conducting Competition 2015 in Bucharest, Jonathan received the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra prize and a special jury prize leading to his Polish debut with the Kielce Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also previously selected as one of 20 finalists from 300 live auditionees to participate in the prestigious Besancon International Conducting Competition in France.

As founder and Music Director of the Cardiff Sinfonietta, Jonathan Mann oversaw the orchestra’s expansion over a 15 year period. The orchestra broadcast for the BBC and S4C and worked with soloists including Nicola Benedetti, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Benjamin Grosvenor, Sunwook Kim and Dennis O’Neill. At the start of 2020 the Cardiff Sinfonietta merged with the Welsh Sinfonia to form Ensemble Cambrica, an exciting new orchestra aimed at reaching the community in innovative ways.

Passionate about inspiring young musicians, Jonathan Mann has conducted numerous youth orchestra festivals around the world. From 2015 - 2022 he was Artistic Director of the Immanuel Orchestra in Bangkok which is loosely modeled on the renowned Venezuelan music program ‘El Sistema’. During this time he raised the standard of the orchestra performing symphonies by Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert and helped mentor students encouraging them into higher education. 

Jonathan is also a popular teacher of conducting. He is Founder and Artistic Director of the CIAC Conducting Academy providing intensive live and virtual courses for emerging conductors and with the founding of the Thai Conductors Forum in 2019 he has started to mentor a new generation of young Thai conductors.

Jonathan Mann studied in London at the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was also the Sir Charles Mackerras Junior Fellow in Conducting at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. His conducting mentors are Colin Metters, George Hurst, Jac Van Steen and Bernard Haitink whom he worked with at the Lucerne Festival.

HSO Conductor and Music Director: Tom Hammond  (2014-2021)

London-based conductor Tom Hammond was known for his exciting and thoughtful programming and broad repertoire. Tom was equally at home working with top-flight international artists as he was conducting leading non-professional and youth orchestras. Recent soloists with whom he had performed, include pianist Stephen Hough, clarinettist Emma Johnson, cellists Steven Isserlis and Matthew Sharp, violinists Ray Chen, Tamsin Waley-Cohen and David Le Page, and French horn player Ben Goldscheider.

 Tom received mentorship from the late Sir Charles Mackerras and gave many first performances of new music by, amongst others, Matthew Taylor, James Francis Brown and Bernard Hughes. A CD of world première recordings of music for families, conducted by Tom with Orchestra of the Swan and narrated by Alexander Armstrong, was released on the Orchid Classics label in February 2020, with music by Hughes, Judith Weir, Malcolm Arnold and John Ireland.

A champion of music-making outside the capital, Tom was Co-Artistic Director and founder of the Hertfordshire Festival of Music. Launched in 2016, it has rapidly grown to become one of the leading celebrations of classical music in the UK, featuring major artists and ensembles alongside innovative outreach work, and winning major support from Arts Council England.

Since 2011 Tom regularly visited the Middle East to conduct ensembles from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, Palestine, including the Palestine Youth Orchestra. He also adjudicated for the Palestine National Music Competition and, closer to home, for the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Oxford University, Trinity Laban Conservatoire and the Croydon Performing Arts Festival.

 Tom’s work as a producer with Chiaro Audio has led to releases with Resonus Classics and First Hand Records, and forthcoming releases with Edition Peters Label. He was appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2010, and Conductor Emeritus of London’s Sinfonia Tamesa in 2019.

 Tom Hammond (1974-2021)