Adrian Leaper is Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in Madrid, Spain’s equivalent of the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in London. He was previously made Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Filharmónia de Gran Canaria in 1994, staying there until taking up his present position in 2001. He first came to prominence when he was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester for five years between 1986 and 1991 where he was eventually conducting nearly 30 concerts each season.
Adrian Leaper has conducted all four major London orchestras, the Symphony Orchestras of Moscow, Vienna and Prague Symphony Orchestras, several Radio Symphony Orchestras in countries that include the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Eire and Norway, as well as others ranging from L’Orcheste de la Suisse Romande in Switzerland to Swedens’s Malmö Symphony Orchestra. He will also be enjoying future visits to conduct the Mozarteum Orchester in Salzburg, Poland’s National Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Malaysian Philharmonic orchestras, in addition to working throughout Spain with other orchestras there such as the Orquesta Ciudad de Sevilla, Orquesta Ciudad de Málaga and Real Orquesta de Galicia whilst retaining close contact with the Orquesta Filharmónia de Gran Canaria.
Adrian Leaper’s repertoire has grown over the years to encompass Sibelius, Janáček, Elgar, Dvořák and Mahler, and demonstrates a special empathy with music of Spanish composers. Beyond these, he has had considerable success with pieces like Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin, Martinů’s St. Francisco Frescoes, Shostakovitch’s Symphony No. 1, and Janáček’s Jenůfa with Eve Urbanova and Nancy Gustaveson. He has also frequently worked with artists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Felicity Lott, Garrick Ohlssen, Rudolf Buchbinder, Mischa Maisky, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Alicia de Larrocha, Pierre Amoyal, Ernst Kovacic, Cho-Liang Lin and Anne-Sofie von Otter.
This extraordinary breadth is also reflected in an enormous discography of nearly 80 CD recordings in his career to date nearly all of which have been recorded for Naxos/Marco Polo and other labels.
November 2007
