Mark elder conductor biography of michaels

British conductor (born 1947)

Not to be confused with Mark Elder (American football).

Sir Mark Philip ElderCH, CBE (born 2 June 1947) is a British conductor.

He is currently music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.

Life and career

Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, the son of a dentist.^[1] He played the bassoon when in primary school, at Bryanston School, Dorset, and in the National Youth Orchestra, where he was one of the foremost musicians (bassoon and keyboard) of his generation.

He attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge as a choral scholar, where he studied music. He later became a protégé of Sir Edward Downes and gained experience conducting Verdi operas (as well as Prokofiev's War and Peace and Wagner's Meistersinger) in Australia, at the Sydney Opera House.^[2]

Family

Elder and his wife, Mandy, have a daughter, Katie.^[3]

The ENO and association with several orchestras

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