Barry Wordsworth Music Director/Principal Conductor

Barry Wordsworth is Music Director of the Royal Ballet Covent Garden, having previously held the position from 1990–1995. He has also been Music Director and Principal Conductor of the BPO since 1989, and in 2006 became Conductor Laureate of the BBC Concert Orchestra, having served as its Principal Conductor since 1989. From 2005–2008 he was Music Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet.

In 1989, Barry Wordsworth made his first televised appearance at the BBC Proms, and has conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra regularly in subsequent seasons of the Proms. He has also toured extensively with the orchestra, including tours to Japan and the USA for their 50th Anniversary in 2002.

Highlights in recent seasons have included guest appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony and Sydney Symphony. In the UK, he has conducted the Philharmonia, London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

In addition to his symphonic career, he has enjoyed a long and close relationship with the Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet and in recent seasons has also conducted the New National Theatre Tokyo, Leipzig Ballet and the ballet of the Opéra National de Paris.

He has a large catalogue of recordings, including a long association with Argo/Decca International. His recording of the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ achieved enormous popular success and his most recent release, with Bryn Terfel and the LSO, won a Grammy Award in 2007.
He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Brighton and the University of Central England, and in 2006 was made an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College of Music.