| Biography | Presently holder of an ENO Mackerras Conducting Fellowship, Toby Purser is also Artistic Director and Founder of the Orion Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Peace and Prosperity Trust, and Principal Guest Conductor of the London International Orchestra.
He began his musical studies as a chorister and a music scholar at Winchester College, following which he studied piano in Vienna before returning to read music at Oxford, where he founded the Oxford University Philomusica and conducted the Oxford Sinfonietta. Having begun his conducting studies with George Hurst, he spent two years at the St. Petersburg State Conservatoire studying with Ilya Musin, and then a further three years at the Royal Academy of Music with Colin Metters.
Toby Purser first came to prominence as a prizewinner at the Leeds Conducting Competition in 2002, and was appointed Assistant Conductor of L'Ensemble Orchestral de Paris for 2007 following his participation in the Vendome Academy with Janos Furst and John Nelson.
Orchestras he has conducted include the English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, London Concert Orchestra, LEnsemble Orchestral de Paris, Kotorart Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, the Orpheus Sinfonia, Oxford University Orchestra, Sinfonia Viva, Kammerphilharmonie Graz, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the St Petersburg Camerata and the St Petersburg Festival Orchestra. He conducted the London Concert Orchestra for Raymond Gubbay Ltd at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and the Barbican Centere, London. Working with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the tenor Jesús León, his most recent CD, Bel Canto, has just been released on Opus Arte. |