Mark Elder

Mark Elder was Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra (2000–24) and is now Conductor Emeritus. In September 2025 he becomes Music Director of the Palau de Les Arts Valencia. He is the former Artistic Director of Opera Rara (2012–19) and former Music Director of English National Opera (1979–93). He made his Royal Opera debut in 1976; recent engagements there include Carmen, La forza del destino, Aida, Peter Grimes, L’Ange de Nisida in concert, L’Étoile, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Wozzeck, La bohème, The Tsar’s Bride, Fidelio and Adriana Lecouvreur. Engagements elsewhere include Le prophète (Aix-en-Provence Festival), Samson et Dalila and Rusalka (Metropolitan Opera), Carmen and Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Paris Opera) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (San Francisco Opera). He has recorded with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Hallé, LPO, CBSO, BBC SO, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Opera Rara. In 2006 he was named Conductor of the Year by the Royal Philharmonic Society. He was made a CBE in 1989, knighted in 2008 and made a Companion of Honour in 2017.