Conducting Course Fee by Request

Colin Metters’ career as conductor, orchestral trainer and conducting pedagogue takes him all over the world and his wide experience affords him an enviable reputation across a broad spectrum of the music profession. He has conducted many of the leading symphony orchestras in the United Kingdom and also worked extensively abroad, guest conducting in Poland, Spain, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Netherlands, France, Vietnam, Greece and New Zealand. He has recorded and broadcast over many years both in the UK and abroad, including numerous recordings for BBC Radio 3 and a number of performances recorded for television.

Metters’ repertoire is wide-ranging, embracing the main-stream Classical and Romantic repertory and he has always been an enthusiastic champion of contemporary composers, giving an impressive number of first performances and collaborating with such composers as Jonathan Harvey, John Lambert, Matthew Taylor, Augusta Read Thomas, Leonard Salzedo, Ewen Bennett, Adam Gorb and Nicola Lefanu. Robin Holloway’s Clarinet Concerto, which Metters was responsible for commissioning, received its world premiere in July 1996 with Metters conducting and Andrew Marriner as soloist.

He has also worked with many of the leading composers of the 20th century and received particular praise for his conducting of their own works from Tippett, Lutoslawski, Henze, Richard Rodney Bennett, Robin Holloway, Paul Patterson and Messiaen. Following a performance of his Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum, which was broadcast by BBC television, Messiaen wrote in Metters’ score:

‘for Colin Metters – who conducted with so much power, courage and nobility this difficult work. With all my congratulations and my profound recognition! Thank you, bravo! and my friendship.’

Penderecki attended a performance of his Symphony No 1 conducted by Metters which was, he said, by far the best performance he had heard and invited him to work with his own orchestra, the Cracow Philharmonic. Metters subsequently enjoyed a very successful relationship with the orchestra over a number of years.

Over the past 20 years, Colin Metters has established an international reputation as one of the leading conducting pedagogues, giving masterclasses in Germany, Poland, Finland, Australia, Vietnam, Venezuela, China and the USA. He is currently Professor of Conducting and Director of Conducting Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, a course he founded in 1983 and which, through his dedication and commitment, is now recognised internationally as one of the foremost conductor training programmes.

In addition to his work in the concert hall, Metters has considerable experience in the theatre working with many leading Ballet companies. He was appointed Music Director of the Ballet Rambert at the age of 23, conducted regularly for Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet (now Birmingham Royal Ballet) and has guest conducted for Netherlands Dance Theatre, Cape Town Ballet and Australian Ballet at the Sydney Opera House, over the years working with, amongst many others, Nuryev, Massine, Anthony Dowell, Antoinette Sibley, Maina Guilgud and Sir Robert Helpmann.

Colin Metters has been Music Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra since 1999. Colin Metters’ work in Vietnam – the ‘VSNO Project’ – is unique in that the orchestra comprises 100% Vietnamese musicians and involves not only working to raise the standards of their National Orchestra, but also coaching aspiring young Vietnamese conductors. In 1999, in recognition of his work, he was honoured by the government with the Vietnamese equivalent of the ‘Order of Merit’ for his services to Vietnamese cultural development, the first time such an award has been made to a British citizen.

Over recent months Metters has made return visits to New York, Vietnam and Zurich, plus first time visits to Toronto, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Turkey.