Conductor Christopher Swaffer CONTACT: To EMAIL Paste the line below into your address bar info [at] christopherswaffer.com then replace [at] with @ - no spaces WEBSITE SOUND ON: Now playing - Excerpt from Takemitsu's Archipelago S. forthcoming engagements

Christopher is currently Artistic Director of the Auricle Ensemble, the University of St. Andrew’s Symphony Orchestra and the Edinburgh Festival Symphony Orchestra. He has guest conducted many ensembles, including the St. Petersburg Academic and Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestras, the Metropolitan Ensemble and the Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra. Christopher's passion for new music has seen him conduct many premieres, including the UK premiere of the Ives Society Critical Edition of Charles Ives' Second Symphony and seven world premieres at the Royal Northern College of Music with contemporary music group Ensemble 11. He also recently conducted the first public performance of Howard Blake’s Diversions for marimba in the presence of the composer, with soloist Heather Corbett. Christopher was educated at Chetham's School of Music and holds a Masters degree in composition and conducting from the University of Manchester where he studied with John Casken and Garry Walker. He has studied privately with Clark Rundell (RNCM) and Denise Ham (RAM) and has actively participated in many masterclasses both in the UK and abroad, including Colin Metters (St. Petersburg), Harold Farberman (New York) and George Hurst (RAM, London). He recently also gained a place at the Bard Summer Music Festival, New York where he conducted Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. As well as his professional commitments, Christopher has also been music director or guest conductor of over thirty amateur, youth and university orchestras and is a conducting consultant for both 'musicinset.com', and the NOTION Conducting software and syllabus, delivering training across Europe.

"revelatory...gorgeous...compelling...characterful...ravishing...****" Michael Tumelty, Chief Music Critic, The Herald (Oct 2010, Mahler's Fourth Symphony)
"a delicate, technically impeccable and sensitive reading" The Herald, Oct 2009 (Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire)

FORTHCOMING CONCERTS: Future engagements include: Further performances of Walton's Façade at the Edinburgh Festival, Wigtown Book Festival and Fringe by the Sea; the European premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ A Fiddler’s Tale Suite; world premiere performances of Thomas Wilson’s incidental music for the BBC.