Toby Purser
Conductor
INTRODUCTION
Head of Conducting at London’s Royal College of Music, Toby Purser’s conducting is recognised for its combination of passion and intellect, poetry and drama. In 2019, 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. Recognised as a world leader in the conducting community, he launched ‘Conductors in Isolation’ at the beginning of lockdown, an online forum which now has over 1800 members worldwide.
Current engagements include the UK première of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers for Opera della Luna; Belle Lurette for New Sussex Opera; a second CD with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and tenor Jesús León; and a return to the East Anglia Chamber Orchestra at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge. For Raymond Gubbay Ltd, he conducts Christmas at the Movies, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Beyond and Zimmer vs Williams at venues including the Barbican Hall, the Southbank Centre, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. At London’s Royal Albert Hall he will conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra in Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Soloist: Danny Driver) and Symphony No. 9.
Regent engagements included conducting Fidelio for Lyric Opera, Dublin, and of La Belle Hélène in a co-production between New Sussex Opera and Opera della Luna. Other projects included a recording of the music of Ernest Kaye with Britten Sinfonia, the launch of his new orchestral ensemble Sinfonia 1, Masterclasses for Aberystwyth MusicFest, and concerts with the East Anglia Chamber Orchestra, the London Concert Orchestra and Manchester Concert Orchestra. Despite the pandemic, he was able to conduct performances of Don Giovanni and Così fan Tutte in Vienna, the world premiere of A Feast in the Time of Plague for Grange Park Opera, concert performances of Bartok and Baczewitz at the Royal College of Music, and a streamed charity gala from the stage of English National Opera.
As Musical Director of New Sussex Opera, Toby Purser conducts the recently released CD from the 2018 production of Stanford’s The Travelling Companion, now available on Somm Céleste. He is founding Musical Director of the Vienna Opera Festival and Academy, launched in Summer 2019. His inspirational 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 Royal Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, which he conducted in Jesús León’s debut CD Bel Canto for Opus Arte CD, and Sinfonia Viva.
For English National Opera, he has conducted The Turn of the Screw, The Marriage of Figaro and La Traviata. At Grange Park Opera, he has conducted Madama Butterfly, Eugene Onegin, Rigoletto and Fortunio, which was also performed at the Buxton Festival, and with Opera della Luna The Daughter of the Regiment, Orpheus in the Underworld, the UK premiere of Johann Strauss’s operetta Das Spitzentuch der Königin, and Tales of Offenbach. Other operatic performances have included La bohème for Lyric Opera, Dublin, Bailey’s The Black Monk for The Sirius Ensemble, Haydn’s The Apothecary and La Canterina for Bampton Classical Opera, Hänsel und Gretel and Die Entführung aus dem Serail for British Youth Opera and Le Comte Ory for Chelsea Opera Group. For Pimlico Opera, he has conducted productions in various prisons, with a cast of inmates performing alongside professionals in repertoire include Carmen the Musical, Les Misérables, Sugar, Sister Act, Sweeney Todd and West Side Story.
Since 2019, Toby Purser has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Orion Orchestra, which he founded in 2005 and developed into one of London’s great orchestral successes, now recognised as a leading organisation for young musicians. Together they initiated the Alpha & Omega concert series, a Composers’ Prize, a Young Conductors’ Award and a Great Young Soloists series, as well as touring with them to Singapore as part of the Shaw Foundation’s ‘Ones to Watch’ Series.
As Artistic Director of the Peace and Prosperity Trust, he has been furthering cultural collaboration between the UK and the Middle East with concerts in Beirut and London, bringing together Western and Middle Eastern opera singers, helping relaunch the Beirut Orpheus Choir, and taking music and musical instruments to Syrian children in the refugee camps on the Lebanese/Syrian border.
Recognised as one of the world’s leading conducting mentors, he is a committed advocate and support to many early- career conductors. Through his positions as Head of Conducting at the Royal College of Music, director of the Vienna Opera Academy, and of the Aberystwyth MusicFest Conductors Course, he is also passionate about passing on the wisdom and heritage learnt from his own teachers Ilya Musin, George Hurst and Colin Metters.
Please note that this biography is not to be used for programmes. Current information is available on request.
REVIEWS
Three Decembers / Opera della Luna 2022
“The 11-piece band was adroitly conducted by Toby Purser.”
Opera
The Princess of Trébizonde / New Sussex Opera 2021
“Toby Purser’s conducting evoked big tops and boulevards…”
Opera
“Toby Purser conducted beautifully, milking all Offenbach’s sly delight out of his 12 players.”
Opera Now
“Toby Purser gives Offenbach’s sinuous melodies grace and his rhythms vivacity.”
The Stage
East Anglia Chamber Orchestra / West Road Concert Hall 2021
“Purser is a treat of a conductor – floppy curly hair waving in the music breeze, dancing baton, theatrical pezzazz.”
The Cambridge Critique
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 / Orion Orchestra
“The ‘Choral’ Symphony received a terrifically exciting outing that lived up to its call-to-arms-in-brotherhood theme, a performance that punched at the stars. And so the first movement was a relentless headlong dash, with strict and consistent tempos lending an air of defiance, and the Scherzo enjoyed wonderfully detailed interplay, and there was no hanging around either. Whether there is a slow movement in this Symphony is a moot point, for here it benefited from flow and delightful dovetailing. Then to the Schiller-inspired Finale, here tremendous, suitably joyous and communicating exhilarated feeling, with mostly fine solo singing and glorious contributions from the London Philharmonic Choir: fraternal music-making.”
Kevin Rogers, Classical Source
Beethoven: Fidelio / Lyric Opera, Dublin
“…the performance was conducted with great vigour and musical intensity by Toby Purser.”
Ian Fox, Opera
Britten: The Turn of the Screw / English National Opera
“Toby Purser led a chamber-sized section of ENO Orchestra’s senior players in a pinpoint reading of the score, spot on in tempi and mood.”
Dominic Lowe, Bachtrack
“Toby Purser conducts with authority and sensitivity…”
Guy Holloway, Classical Source
“…excellently conducted by Toby Purser.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian
“conducted with superb authority by ENO Mackerras Fellow Toby Purser…”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer
“Toby Purser conducted a very eloquent and lucid account…”
Robert Thicknesse, Opera Now
“…Toby Purser’s impassioned conducting of excellent ENO instrumentalists…”
Richard Morrison, The Times
“…a first-night performance of scintillating precision under Toby Purser.”
Mark Valencia, WhatsOnStage
Donizetti: The Daughter of the Regiment / Opera Della Luna at Iford Arts
“The Orchestra of Opera Della Luna, conducted with poise and focus by Toby Purser, make a rich, lyrical, engaging sound which fills the cloister.”
Charlotte Valori, Bachtrack
“The orchestra, conducted by Toby Purser, brings all the rhythm and humour of the music.”
Fine Times Recorder
“Toby Purser conducted tightly and Donizetti’s cleverly pitched creations came off well.”
Robert Thicknesse, Opera
“Director Jeff Clarke and his designers Nigel Howard & Graham Wynne and conductor Toby Purser simply threw away the rule book for this English-language version and solved the production “problems” with panache, wit, imagination and, well, plenty of va-va-vroom.”
Sue Loder, Opera Today
Haydn: The Apothecary / Bampton Classical Opera
“Toby Purser conducted the performance with fine judgement and considerable expertise.”
George Hall, Opera
Messager: Fortunio / Grange Park Opera
“Conductor Toby Purser highlights the score’s entrancing subtleties while keeping the pacing brisk.”
George Hall, The Guardian
“The conductor Toby Purser, who worked with Grange Park Opera’s Rising Stars with memorable results in their Yevgeny Onegin at Nevill Holt last year, really had the measure of the music. He kept a precise hold on its sentimentality and comedy, generally flattered the direction and designs, and drew a Gallic sheen from the ‘Orchestre de Maître André.”
Peter Reed, Opera
“But the best characterisations by far lay in in the orchestral pit, where Toby Purser’s baton slashed through the air, keeping Messager’s elegant score rippling along.”
Geoff Brown, The Times
Offenbach: La belle Hélène / New Sussex Opera
“There was a real whiff of Second Empire greasepaint in Toby Purser’s conducting…”
Yehuda Shapiro, Opera
“Toby Purser keeps the music bouncing along.”
George Hall, The Stage
“Toby Purser conducts a 12-piece band with verve, letting the music breathe comfortably in its more romantic episodes…”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
Offenbach: Orpheus in the Underworld / Opera Della Luna at Iford Arts
“It was Toby Purser’s briskly energetic conducting that carried the evening.”
Rian Evans, The Guardian
“It’s all good clean fun, underpinned by the vivacious playing of a sprightly band ably conducted by Toby Purser.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
Offenbach: Orpheus in the Underworld / Opera della Luna 2019
“Toby Purser conducted with elegance and elan.”
Yehuda Shapiro, Opera
Offenbach: The Tales of Offenbach / Opera Della Luna
“…the two scores turn out to be top-drawer Offenbach, each one a succession of clever and attractive numbers expertly delivered by the cast and given sharpness and vivacity by conductor Toby Purser.”
George Hall – The Stage
“Purser kept things whipping along, but judiciously allowed the cast to make the comic moments tell.”
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
“Purser is the galvanising conductor of a small but sprightly pit band.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
Puccini: Madama Butterfly / Grange Park Opera at Nevill Holt
“The richness of the fabrics on view has its parallel in he glorious sound encouraged from players and singers by conductor Toby Purser.”
Christopher Gray, The Oxford Times
Rossini: Le Comte Ory / Chelsea Opera Group
“…attacked the score with plenty of braggadocio, Italian swagger and French farce combining to raise some much needed laughs this weekend.”
Mark Pullinger, Bachtrack
“Toby Purser conducted a fine account of the score.”
Alexander Campbell, Classical Source
“Conductor Toby Purser kept things bubbling along.”
Claire Seymour, Opera
Stanford: The Travelling Companion / New Sussex Opera
“…Toby Purser’s sensitive baton…”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
“Toby Purser draws the complex musical threads of the piece in a performance that does its best with middling material.”
George Hall, The Stage
J. Strauss: The Queen’s Lace Handkerchief / Opera Della Luna
“…Toby Purser conducts with vigour and a fine sense of style. Musical values are consistently high.”
George Hall, The Stage
“The evening’s chief pleasure comes from a sparklingly crisp and lively pit band, gracefully conducted by Toby Purser.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin / Grange Park Opera
“Toby Purser’s excellent conducting and the overall balance he achieved made you realize how much of the detail of Pushkin’s atmosphere, character and story is conveyed by Tchaikovsky’s music.”
Peter Reed, Classical Source
“The conductor Toby Purser, on the far left of his forces, kept them in firm control while affectionately unfolding Tchaikovsky’s score…”
Margaret Davies, Opera
Verdi: Rigoletto / Grange Park Opera
“Such is the musical energy under the baton of young Toby Purser, that this Rigoletto makes its own distinctive mark.”
Hilary Finch, The Times
“The ensembles are well-balanced, the English Chamber Orchestra’s performance under Toby Purser as vivid and precise as its Wagner was not. Purser can colour a moment without losing propulsion or line.”
Anna Picard, The Independent
“Most impressive of all was the vivid conducting of another rising young talent, Toby Purser.”
David Mellor, Mail on Sunday
“Purser kept tempi brisk and flowing, got the rhythms and accents into the music in all the right places, and kept the balance between stage and pit well-judged at all times: he was considerate to his singers, and they followed his beat well.”
Mike Reynolds, Musical Criticism
“…excellent chorus and English Chamber Orchestra were incisively conducted by Toby Purser.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer
“…the clear beat of conductor Toby Purser, whose keen understanding of Verdi’s score is demonstrated in every single bar.”
George Hall, Opera
“…excellent conductor Toby Purser keeps the score neat, clean, and transparent: there’s none of the lush, self-indulgent wallowing that sometimes overcooks Verdi performances. I’ve never heard the English Chamber Orchestra play better — the poignant woodwind writing, in particular, shines through.”
Giles Woodforde, The Oxford Times
Verdi: Rigoletto / Grange Park Opera at Nevill Holt
“Conductor Toby Purser and the Orchestra of Nevill Holt provided well-disciplined accompaniment. Purser allowed the music to flow and breathe, displaying a real feel for the ebb and flow of Verdi’s lines. He gave the singers time to breathe and shape their lines.”
Robert Hugill, Music & Vision
Orion Orchestra / Elgar In the South, Vaughan Williams, Elkington, Howell
“The real star of the evening was Toby Purser, who directed the whole show with a mastery and understanding of the music. His careful preparation of the orchestra, and his interpretations, were eagerly welcomed by a very enthusiastic audience.”
Bob Briggs, Seen and Heard International
Orion Orchestra / Shostakovich Symphony No.9, Britten, Tippett, Vaughan Williams
“If you want to learn the secret of classical music’s perennial good health, look no further. The programme was stunning…the sound had at times a burnished perfection…. The way Purser and his players negotiated the sinister muted waltz in the second movement [of Shostakovich Symphony No.9], and the grotesquery of the last, was masterly.”
Michael Church, The Independent
“[Orion]…played with enormous ebullience and abandon…This intense and energetic performance [of Shostakovich Symphony No. 9] was a welcome outing for this under-rated and seldom-performed work, ending a hugely enjoyable evening of contrasting moods.”
Simon Thomas, Music OMH
Orion Orchestra / Brahms Symphony No.2, Wagner, Strauss, Reger
“ Toby Purser led his equally young musicians assuredly through the potential minefield of this mainly Romantic music. The Tristan Prelude had an apposite yearning quality to it but there was also a youthful eagerness to press on with the chromatic melodies.”
Jim Prichard, MusicWeb International
Orion Orchestra / Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Smith, Purcell
“The concert included Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, in which Purser coaxed a most touching pianissimo from the orchestra, and Vaughan Williams’ great Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, in which Purser aimed, and succeeded, in giving us ‘a glimpse of something of eternal beauty’.”
Penelope Cave, British Harpsichord Society
“ [Purser] …raised the performance to the level of the truly ethereal…an incredible performance.”
Sam Smith, Music OMH
DISCOGRAPHY
Bel Canto
Jesús León
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Opus Arte CD OACD 9035D
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3
Panos Karan – piano
Orion Orchestra / Toby Purser
Solo Artiste CD SA01
British Composers Premiere Collections Vol.4
Dorothy Howell Piano Concerto
Lilian Elkington Out of the Mists
Orion Orchestra / Toby Purser
Cameo Classics CD CC9041CD
Stanford The Travelling Companion
Kate Valentine, David Horton, Felix Kemp, Julien Van Mellaerts
New Sussex Opera Orchestra and Chorus / Toby Purser
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD 274-2
