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.

Educated at Chetham's School of Music, Christopher graduated from the University of Manchester in 2000 with a Masters degree in composition and conducting, where he studied with John Casken and Garry Walker and has participated in masterclasses with Colin Metters and George Hurst at the Royal Academy of Music. He has worked with many diverse ensembles - he is currently Artistic Director of the Auricle Ensemble and the Scottish Chamber Music Players, guest conductor for the Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Principal Conductor of the Edinburgh Festival Symphony Orchestra with whom he recently gave the Scottish premiere of Takemitsu's Archipelago S. alongside Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, the Leningrad.

Abroad, Christopher has worked in masterclass with the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra and has been invited to conduct the Italian Society of Musical Theatre and the Bombay Chamber Orchestra. Christopher's passion for new music has seen him conduct many premieres, including the recent UK premiere of the Ives Society Critical Edition of Charles Ives' Second Symphony. With contemporary music group Ensemble 11, he conducted a Composition Symposium of seven world premieres at the RNCM. He made his debut with the Metropolitan Ensemble in a concert of baroque concerti in Covent Garden, London. As well as his professional commitments, Christopher has also been music director or guest conductor of over thirty amateur, youth and university orchestras.

"Elegant and assuredly capable" Senay Boztas, Sunday Herald

"A superb performance, displaying verve, sensitivity and power" Jablonec, Czech Republic

"The conductor is a talented young man with huge potential" Dr. Joe Dawson, Manchester Evening News

FORTHCOMING CONCERTS

Future engagements include Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony with the Auricle Ensemble, Mahler's First Symphony with the Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra, assistant conductor for Mahler's Second Symphony at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and a production of Weill's Threepenny Opera at the Edinburgh Festival.