Biography
Chris Gill gained a Bachelor of Music (Honours) at the University of Birmingham, specialising in conducting. In his final year, he attended the Canford Conducting Course with George Hirst and took part a Conducting Workshop with West Australian Symphony Orchestra. After graduating, he went on to study with Baldur Brönnimann on the RNCM Conducting Course. He has now built up an extensive repertoire, conducting over 200 performances with several orchestras, choirs and opera companies. He has worked with soloists such as Alison Balsom, Carolyn Sampson and Serenna Wagner, with performances broadcast on BBC television and radio.
Chris has conducted many orchestras, including the Lancashire Sinfonietta, English Pro Musica, City of Preston Orchestra, Isis Chamber Orchestra, Festival Orchestra of Manchester, Amaretti Chamber Orchestra, Harrogate Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham University Chamber Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, Stockport Symphony Orchestra, Burnley Symphony Orchestra and Rochdale Youth Orchestra, in venues such as the BBC Studios in Manchester, the Royal Northern College of Music, Preston Guild Hall and Blackpool Tower Ballroom. His wide-ranging orchestral repertoire includes Brahms Haydn Variations, Casella Scarlattiana, Dvořák New World Symphony and Slavonic Dances, Elgar Enigma Variations and Pomp and Circumstance Marches, Haydn Farewell Symphony andTrumpet Concerto, Mozart Symphony Nos. 25, 40 and 41 and Clarinet Concerto, Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals, Schumann Cello Concerto, Strauss Oboe Concerto and Stravinsky Petrouchka suite.
In 2006, Chris founded Heritage Opera, a professional touring opera company which has toured across the UK, with whom he has conducted over 20 fully-staged operas, including the world première of Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park and the UK professional première of Moniuszko’s Halka. He has also appeared as a Musical Director for Grimeborn Festival, Oxford Opera, Flatpack Music, Opera Anywhere, City of Manchester Opera, Preston Opera, Birmingham University Summer Festival Opera, and the Una Voce Opera Company. He was also Assistant Conductor to Gianluca Marcianò at Longborough Festival Opera. He has translated and conducted Mozart Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte, and has co-translated and conducted Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin. Other operatic repertoire includes Bizet Carmen; Britten The Turn of the Screw; Donizetti L’elisir d’amore and La fille du régiment; Mozart Die Zauberflöte; Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana; Menotti Amahl and the Night Visitors; Puccini La bohème, Madama Butterfly and Tosca, Purcell Dido and Aeneas, Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia, Saint-Saëns Samson and Deliliah; Strauss Die Fledermaus; Sullivan Trial by Jury and HMS Pinafore; and Verdi La traviata.
Chris has conducted many choirs and choral societies, including Preston Cecilian Choral Society, Bury Choral Society, Burnley Choral Society, Birmingham University Chamber Choir and Liturgical Choir, Clitheroe Chorale, the A Capella Singers and Interlude Choir in Normandy, France. He has led choral workshops for Preston Arts Festival, Accrington and Rossendale College and Swan Hellenic Cruises. His choral repertoire includes Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Britten Ceremony of Carols, Dvořák Te Deum, Fauré Requiem, Handel Messiah and Coronation Anthems, Haydn Marie Therese Mass and Nelson Mass, Mendelssohn Elijah, Mozart Mass in C minor and Requiem, Orff Carmina Burana, Parry Blest Pair of Sirens, Puccini Messa di Gloria, Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem, In Windsor Forest and Serenade to Music, Purcell Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary and Vivaldi Gloria. He was the choirmaster for Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy.
A Figaro that I’ll remember for a long time to come’ – Gramophone magazine
**** ‘A brilliant achievement, all told.’ – The Times
‘Versatile conducting, which nursed out beautifully graded, subtle detail’ – Opera Now
‘A thoughtful choral and orchestral conductor’ – Opera magazine
‘A capable and enabling conductor’ – Opera Now magazine