Our Conductor – Adrian Brown
Adrian Brown comes from a distinguished line of Sir Adrian Boult’s most gifted pupils. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London, he studied intensively with Sir Adrian for some years. He remains the only British conductor in 1975 to have reached the finals of the Karajan Conductors’ Competition: in fact, the Berlin Philharmonic was the first professional orchestra he conducted. Sir Adrian wrote: ‘He has always impressed me as a musician of exceptional attainments who has all the right gifts and ideas to make him a first-class conductor.’
In 1992 Adrian Brown was engaged to conduct one of the great orchestras of the world: the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1998 Sir Roger Norrington recommended him to conduct the Camerata Salzburg, one of Europe’s foremost chamber orchestras. In addition, Adrian has conducted many leading British orchestras including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. He is also a great proponent of contemporary music and has several first performances to his credit.
In 1972 Adrian was appointed Music Director of Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra a position from which he stood down in March 2013 after 40 years. It is felt he has made a major contribution to the musical education of quite a few youngsters over a long period. Working with such young musicians has also been an area where Adrian Brown has made a valuable contribution to British musical life, as well as in Europe, Japan and the Philippines. He has frequently conducted both the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (working closely with Sir Colin Davis and Sir Roger Norrington) and the National Youth Wind Orchestra.
Adrian Brown was one of a hundred musicians presented with a prestigious Classic FM Award at their Tenth Birthday Honours Celebration in June 2002. In the summer of 2013, he was awarded the ‘Making Music’ NFMS Lady Hilary Groves Prize for services to Community Music, a much appreciated and admired honour. In December 2017 Adrian was presented with the Berlioz International Society Medal for services to the great French composer. In October 2019 at the time of his 70th Birthday, he was awarded the Elgar Medal.
Since its inception in 2018, his orchestra the Elgar Sinfonia has gone from strength to strength. Many rare works by Elgar and other British composers have been presented. In October 2022, the Orchestra celebrated the London Branch Elgar Society 50th anniversary with a concert including ‘Sea Pictures’,’ Polonia’ and the ‘Crown of India’ in the presence of Dame Janet Baker. The Sinfonia have performed a cycle of the Elgar Symphonies and have revived Elgar’s ‘The Black Knight’ and the Piano Concerto by Arthur Bliss.
Adrian conducted a profound performance of the ‘Missa Solemnis’ of Beethoven in the Autumn of 2021 with the London Chorus and the Royal Orchestral Society. He is proud of his long-term association of 44 years with Waveney Sinfonia, Suffolk and is delighted to return for guest dates with the Trianon Music Group in Ipswich.
The year 2025 has seen two concerts with The London Chorus of Elgar and Bliss with the New London Orchestra, and he conducts them again in Mozart’s Requiem in October.
He has conducted the Bromley symphony Orchestra for 45 years and plans many concerts of Strauss, Berlioz and Vaughan Williams in future seasons. Together they have covered an enormous repertoire from Mahler and Bruckner to most of the standard classics performed in a style and a standard second to none. As too with the Elgar Sinfonia, Adrian plans to still explore works that deserve a live hearing including Holst, Gipps, Moeran, Farrenc, Finzi, Boulanger and many more in an inexhaustible career.
Adrian Brown July 2025