Colin Metters' Biography

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 Exspecto 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.

Last season, Colin Metters made return visits to New York, Vietnam and Zurich, plus first time visits to Toronto, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Turkey. He recently made his debut with New York City Ballet conducting Schoenberg and Stravinsky at the Lincoln Centre. In August this year, he conducted two concerts with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra at the Hanoi Opera House. This season he returns to Germany to direct conducting masterclasses with the Th?ringham Symphony Orchestra and the Hofer Philharmonic.

Colin Metters has been Music Advisor and principal Guest Conductor with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra since 1999. In recognition of his work with the VNSO he was honoured by the Vietnamese government with their equivalent of the 'Order of Merit' for his services to Vietnamese cultured development, the first time such an award has been made to a British Citizen.