Rory Macdonald (born 25 August 1980, Stirling, United Kingdom) is a Scottish conductor.
Contents |
He attended Douglas Academy in Milngavie, Glasgow and went on to read Music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He studied violin and piano, and began conducting aged 16. While at university he studied under David Zinman and Jorma Panula at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen.
From January 2006 to August 2008, Macdonald held the position of Assistant Conductor with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, and Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra. He worked closely with the orchestra's Music Director, Sir Mark Elder, and has conducted the orchestra in over 50 concerts across the North West of England.
Other recent guest conducting engagements have included debuts with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Lahti Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In 2011/12, Macdonald makes debuts with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at London’s Barbican Hall and with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Future highlights also include his debuts with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia, and returns to the Hallé, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Lahti Symphony.
Macdonald has also built up an extensive operatic repertoire and is now in demand in some of the world’s leading opera houses. Following his North American debut, conducting Carmen for Canadian Opera Company in January 2010, he made his US debut that autumn at Lyric Opera of Chicago conducting a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 2012 debuts in the United States include new productions of The Rape of Lucretia at Houston Grand Opera and Die Zauberflöte at San Francisco Opera.
In the 2010-11 Season he conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Hänsel und Gretel at the Royal Opera House in London. Other repertoire he has conducted at Covent Garden includes Fidelio, Das Rheingold, Owen Wingrave, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Orphée (Philip Glass).
Following productions of The Barber of Seville and The Pearl Fishers for English National Opera, he opens their 2011-12 Season with The Elixir of Love. Macdonald made his Glyndebourne debut at very short notice with Idomeneo in November 2003.[1] He has since returned to Glyndebourne, conducting Così fan tutte[2] and Albert Herring[3] for the autumn tour.
Other recent opera work has included L'elisir d'amore (Welsh National Opera), The Abduction from the Seraglio (Opera North) La bohème (Danish National Opera, RTE NSO), La fanciulla del West (Grange Park Opera), and Don Giovanni (Magdeburg Opera).
After leaving Cambridge in 2001, Macdonald spent 2 years working as Assistant Conductor to Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He made his concert debut with the orchestra in 2002. During this time Macdonald also worked as an assistant conductor at the Opéra National de Lyon and Opéra National de Paris, and studied opera coaching in Vienna.
In September 2004, Macdonald joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as a conductor. He worked on numerous productions during two seasons, notably assisting Antonio Pappano on Wagner's Ring Cycle. He conducted a special extra performance of Das Rheingold for students in October 2007.[4]
He lives in London.