Mark Elder

Sir Mark Philip Elder (born 2 June 1947) is a British conductor with wide experience in the opera house as music director of English National Opera and at Covent Garden and in the concert hall, serving for over 20 years as music director of the Hallé Orchestra.

Life and career

Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, the son of a dentist. He played the bassoon when in primary school, at Bryanston School, Dorset, and in the National Youth Orchestra, where he was one of the foremost musicians (bassoon and keyboard) of his generation. He attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge as a choral scholar, where he studied music. He later became a protégé of Sir Edward Downes and gained experience conducting Verdi operas (as well as Prokofiev's War and Peace and Wagner's Meistersinger) in Australia, at the Sydney Opera House.

Early career

Elder made his debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 1976 with Rigoletto, and returned 50 years later to conduct the same opera, conducting regularly in the preceding years, initially other Verdi operas - Simon Boccanegra, Nabucco, Luisa Miller, La battaglia di Legnano, Attila, Stiffelio, Alzira - widening into repertoire such as Arabella, La Cenerentola, Lohengrin, Cyrano de Bergerac, Elektra, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Linda di Chamounix, Adriana Lecouvreur, Fidelio, The Tsar's Bride, Wozzeck and L'Étoile.

From 1979 to 1993, Elder was music director of English National Opera (ENO). Elder was part of the "Power House" team at ENO that also included general director Peter Jonas and artistic director David Pountney. He also held positions as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1982–1985) and the London Mozart Players (1980–1983). Elder served as principal guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1992 to 1995.