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The English conductor, Martyn Charles Brabbins, is the fourth of five children in his family. He learned to play the euphonium, and then the trombone during his youth at Towcester Studio Brass Band. He later studied composition at Goldsmiths, University of London. He subsequently studied conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory. He first came to international attention when he was awarded 1st prize at the Leeds Conductors Competition in 1988.
Between 1994 and 2005, Martyn Brabbins was Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He became principal conductor of Sinfonia 21 in 1994. He was Artistic Director of the Cheltenham Music Festival from 2005 to 2007. During his Cheltenham tenure, he established a new ensemble, the Festival Players. In Leeds, he created a new chamber music series called "Music in Transition". On July 17, 2011, he conducted the 6th live performance of Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 1 "The Gothic", at The Proms, which was later released on a Hyperion commercial recording. He was subsequently named president of the Havergal Brian Society. He is also conductor laureate of the Huddersfield Choral Society.
Martyn Brabbins has conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and most other leading UK orchestras. He is a popular figure at the BBC Proms, who in 2019 commissioned 14 living composers to write a birthday tribute to him, released in 2024 on the BIS label. Known for his advocacy of British composers, he has conducted hundreds of world premieres across the globe. He has recorded nearly 150 CD's to date, including prize-winning discs of operas by Korngold, Birtwistle and Harvey. In 2023 he received the RPS Conductor Award for his "colossal" contribution to UK musical life. Amongst his symphonic highlights of 2023-2024: two BBC Proms concerts, including stepping in for the late Sir Andrew Davis, and two successive weeks at the Barbican in repertoire ranging from Mussorgsky to Nono, all with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Martyn Brabbins guests with top international orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Igor Stravinsky), Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and Lahti Sinfonia (Edward Elgar). He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (2009-2015); and Chief Conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra (2012-2016).
Martyn Brabbins has had a busy opera career since his early days at the Kirov and more recently at La Scala, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and regularly in Lyon, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Antwerp. He first guest-conducted at English National Opera (ENO) in 2001, in a production of David Sawer's From Morning to Midnight. On October 21, 2016, ENO named him its next Music Director, with immediate effect. He opened English National Opera’s 2023-2024 season with David Alden’s production of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes in what turned out to be his swansong, as well as a musical highpoint of his seven year tenure. On October 15, 2023, he resigned from ENO, with immediate effect, in protest at proposed music personnel reductions to the company's music staff. He also led a rare performance of Tippett’s opera New Year with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, recording it for release on NMC.
In 2024-2025 Martyn Brabbins conducts the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony at Suntory Hall, the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican (Boulez), makes his debut with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and returns to the Antwerp Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. This season he also conducts The Makropoulos Case for Scottish Opera and Mazeppa for Grange Park Opera. In June 2024, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Brabbins as its next Chief Conductor, effective with the 2025-2026 season (from September 2025), with an initial contract of three seasons. He was also recently appointed Chief Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of India (from January 2026).
Martyn Brabbins has conducted commercial recordings of music for such labels as Warner, Chandos, Hyperion, NMC, Nimbus, and Deutsche Grammophon. His discography ranges from Romantic to contemporary repertoire, with over 60 recordings for Hyperion Records alone, notably of Edward Elgar, William Walton and Tippett. He has received three Gramophone Awards, one for Birtwistle’s Mask of Orpheus with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (NMC) and another in 2021 for Pickard chamber works with the Nash Ensemble (BIS) and (in 2023) shared the Concerto Award with viola soloist Tim Ridout for Edward Elgar and Bloch with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Harmonia Mundi). He also won the Cannes Opera Award for Korngold's Die Kathrin with the BBC Concert Orchestra (CPO), and the Grand Prix du Disque for Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream.
In 2002, Martyn Brabbins founded a training course for aspiring conductors at the St Magnus International Festival in Orkney, which he continues to co-direct. He is Prince Consort Professor of Conducting at the Royal College of Music, Visiting Professor at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire and Artistic Advisor to the Huddersfield Choral Society.
Martyn Brabbins and his wife Karen (née Evans) met at Goldsmiths. The couple married in 1985, and have three children. In January 2013, the University of Bristol awarded him an honorary degree, of Doctor of Music honoris causa. |
