Toby Purser’s conducting is distinguished by exceptional stylistic versatility, and a thrilling combination of passion and musical intelligence. Equally at home in symphonic, contemporary and operatic repertoire, his work also encompasses film music programmes and inter-cultural collaborations: Toby is Artistic Director of the Peace and Prosperity Trust which supports charitable projects for young artists in the Middle East, and is also Artistic Director of the World Orchestras Festival, taking place in Vienna each summer.

His operatic collaborations were nominated for an Olivier Award (Best New Opera Production – Britten The Turn of the Screw with ENO/Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and an International Opera Award (Best Rediscovered Work – Stanford The Travelling Companion with New Sussex Opera. Founder of the Orion Orchestra, he is now music director of Vienna Opera Festival and of New Sussex Opera, and his music-making has prompted guest invitations from English National Opera (where he completed two seasons as ENO Mackerras Conducting Fellow), Grange Park Opera, Opéra National de Paris, St Petersburg Festival Orchestra and many leading British orchestras including the London Concert Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, which he conducted in two operatic CDs, and Sinfonia Viva.

Recent orchestral engagements have included debuts in China with the Chengdu Philharmonic, in Mexico conducting an Opera Gala with Sonora Philharmonic Orchestra, and his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall. He recently recorded a second CD with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and tenor Jesús León; a recording of the music of Ernest Kaye with Britten Sinfonia and a return to the East Anglia Chamber Orchestra at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge.

Head of Conducting at London’s Royal College of Music, he is also recognised as a leading pedagogue and mentor in the conducting community. He launched ‘Conductors in Isolation’ during the Covid Pandemic, an online forum which now has over 1,800 members worldwide.