Chris Gill

Chris Gill first conducted at the age of 17, when he formed a school orchestra for a charity concert. He gained a Bachelor of Music (Honours) at the University of Birmingham, specialising in conducting. In his final year, he attended the Canford Conducting Course with George Hirst and took part a Conducting Workshop with West Australian Symphony Orchestra. After graduating, he went on to study with Baldur Brönnimann on the RNCM Conducting Course and has now built up an extensive repertoire, conducting nearly 100 concerts with several orchestras, choirs and opera companies.

Chris is the Artistic Director of City of Preston Orchestra, a professional orchestra whose debut attracted an audience of over 600 people and was featured on BBC1's North West Tonight. Chris has also conducted Birmingham University Chamber Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, Stockport Symphony Orchestra, Burnley Symphony Orchestra and Rochdale Youth Orchestra in venues such as the BBC Studios in Manchester, the Royal Northern College of Music and Preston Guild Hall. His orchestral repertoire includes such diverse works as Brahms Haydn Variations, Casella Scarlattiana, Dvořák New World Symphony and Slavonic Dances, Elgar Enigma Variations and Pomp and Circumstance Marches, Haydn Farewell Symphony and Trumpet Concerto, Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals, Schumann Cello Concerto, Strauss Oboe Concerto and Stravinsky Petrouchka.

Chris is currently the Musical Director of Preston Cecilian Choral Society and Bury Choral Society, and has also conducted Birmingham University Chamber Choir and Liturgical Choir, the Clitheroe Chorale, the A Cappella Singers and the Interlude Choir in Normandy, France. He has led choral workshops for Preston Arts Festival, Accrington and Rossendale College and Swan Hellenic Cruises. His extensive choral repertoire includes Brahms German Requiem, Britten Ceremony of Carols, Dvořák Te Deum, Fauré Requiem, Handel Messiah and Coronation Anthems, Haydn Marie Therese Mass and Nelson Mass, Mendelssohn Elijah, Mozart Mass in C minor and Requiem, Orff Carmina Burana, Parry Blest Pair of Sirens, Puccini Messa di Gloria, Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem, In Windsor Forest and Serenade to Music and Vivaldi Gloria.

Chris is the Artistic Director of Heritage Opera, a professional opera company touring historic venues across the UK, and Musical Director of City of Manchester Opera, Preston Opera, and the Una Voce Opera Company. He has conducted many complete operas, including Mozart Così fan tutte and The Marriage of Figaro, Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, Puccini La Bohème, Britten The Turn of the Screw and Donizetti L'Elisir d'Amore (Heritage Opera), Donizetti La Fille du Régiment and Mozart Don Giovanni (Una Voce Opera Company), Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana (City of Manchester Opera) and Strauss Die Fledermaus (Preston Opera).

Future plans include Mozart The Magic Flute, Purcell Dido and Aeneas and Pepusch Beggar's Opera for Heritage Opera and preparing Preston Cecilian Choral Society for a performance of Beethoven Choral Symphony with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy.