Toby Purser

MA, DipPerf RAM, ARAM

Head of Conducting

Winning universal critical praise, Toby Purser’s recent work was nominated for an Olivier Award (Best New Opera Production) and an International Opera Award (Best Rediscovered Work - Stanford The Travelling Companion). He was an ENO Mackerras Conducting Fellow 2016-18, conducting productions of The Turn of the Screw and La Traviata. He is Musical Director of the Vienna Opera Festival and Academy, mentoring young singers and conductors, and with which he will conduct Don Giovanni in 2020. Appointed Musical Director of New Sussex Opera in 2018, other companies with which he has worked include Chelsea Opera Group, Grange Park Opera, Lyric Opera Ireland, Opera della Luna, and Opéra National de Paris.

In 2005 Toby Purser founded the Orion Orchestra, of which he remains Principal Guest Conductor. Orchestral engagements have included the St Petersburg Festival Orchestra, l’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Kammerphilharmonie Graz, and many leading British orchestras including Sinfonia Viva, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, which he conducted in Jesús León’s debut CD Bel Canto. Toby was a student of George Hurst, Colin Metters and Ilya Musin, and now teaches as director of the summer conducting course at Aberystwyth MusicFest, and has also tutored at the Admont International Summer Academy, London Conducting Academy, Royal Academy of Music, and Sherborne Summer School of Music.

Faculties / departments: Conducting, Academic staff