Neil Metcalfe read Music at the University of Edinburgh before taking up a scholarship in the opera school of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where he trained as a répétiteur, vocal coach, pianist, continuo player and conductor. He worked for a number of years on the music staff of Scottish Opera, in opera houses in Australia (Sydney), Germany (Dortmund), the United States (Pittsburgh), and Northern Ireland (Belfast), and also with many touring companies including the Bolshoi Opera, Kirov Opera, Catalan National Theatre, and Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

As a performer he has recorded for the BBC (most recently with the National Girls’ Choir of Scotland) and on the Linn Records label (most recently with the Dunedin Consort in J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor), and enjoys a busy career as a solo artist, accompanist, MD and conductor. He has appeared in venues as far afield as Greenland and Australia, in a wide number of genres from musical theatre to chamber music.

He is also a keen supporter of young people in music; he is Chairman of the Scottish Schools Orchestra, a trustee of Edinburgh Young Musicians, and works as an examiner and adjudicator. Neil currently holds the posts of Musical Director of Edinburgh Grand Opera, Edinburgh Music Theatre Company, Balerno Theatre Company, our very own EUMS Chorus, Edinburgh Studio Opera, the Maltings Theatre and Opening Night Productions. He is also a Lecturer in Performance Studies at Stevenson College, Edinburgh.

Monty is a versatile young conductor with a growing reputation for dynamic performances across a wide range of musical genres. Since beginning his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in September, he has worked closely with Will Conway as the assistant conductor of the EUMS Symphony Orchestra, with which he has also been involved as a player.

Monty previously studied at Durham University, where he conducted the main university symphony orchestra for three consecutive years in over 20 concerts, including performances in Newcastle’s Glasshouse, Durham Cathedral, and Durham’s Gala Theatre, amongst other venues. He was also given the opportunity to musically direct and conduct a number of performances of Don Giovanni with the Durham Opera Ensemble, as well as three of Durham University Light Opera Group’s musical theatre productions. Additionally, he took up the position of associate conductor with the Durham University Choral Society, allowing him to work closely with John Forsyth MBE and to conduct the choir on tour in Poland. The groups Monty worked with during his time at Durham all came together for his final concert, where he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth to a sold-out Durham Cathedral with a seven-minute standing ovation at the climax of the final movement – a memory which he treasures.

When Monty is not conducting or playing music, he is usually playing football or studying maths. Whilst at Durham, Monty received prizes for coming top of his cohort in physics in his first year and in maths in his second, third, and fourth years, winning the Margaret Millington Prize for highest overall exam results as well as the highest dissertation mark. This allowed him to win a funded mathematics PhD at the University of Edinburgh, where he currently works under Dr. Dimitra Kosta in the field of algebraic statistics. In the future, he hopes to either take conducting on in a professional capacity or continue further into academia – preferably both!

William Conway is an internationally renowned conductor, whose performances have been described as ‘astonishingly convincing’ (Opera magazine), ‘a tour de force’ (The Guardian), and showing ‘a flair for the unpredictable’ (Financial Times). On the podium, he is known for his conviction, clarity and intelligent musicianship, while his collaborations with Hebrides Ensemble, of which he is Artistic Director and a founding member, have been praised for their fresh and inspirational approach to programming. His dedication to developing contemporary music has been recognised by an award from the Scottish Society of Composers for an outstanding contribution to new music.

Born in Glasgow, Conway studied cello in Scotland and London before returning home to take the position of Principal Cello with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for ten years, a role he combined with his continuing post as Principal Cello with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, of which he is a founder member. He will appear at a series of international festivals with Hebrides Ensemble in the coming season and has recently filmed a solo recital, available to watch at www.hebridesensemble.com.

As a conductor, he studied in Helsinki with Jukka-Pekka Saraste and was a finalist and prizewinner in the 1994 Leeds Conductors’ Competition. Since then, he has established himself as a versatile conductor in chamber, symphonic and operatic repertoire, working with a host of major orchestras both at home and abroad. He continues to expand his extensive opera repertoire; over recent seasons he has conducted Mozart’s Figaro and Magic Flute, Verdi’s Otello, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Puccini’s Tosca, Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, and Bellini’s Norma, as well as making a guest appearance with Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. He made his conducting debut at the 2018 BBC Proms in a staged performance of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale and, in spring 2021, conducted a filmed performance of Pärt’s Passio with Hebrides Ensemble and Dunedin Consort, Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers at Aldeburgh Festival, and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at Lammermuir Festival.

He is Music Director of Edinburgh Studio Opera and Artistic Director of St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh. He works extensively with young musicians and enjoys a long-standing relationship with the orchestras and singers at the University of Edinburgh in particular. He also teaches conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Linn Records, Unicorn-Kanchana, NMC and most recently Delphian Records in a series of highly acclaimed recordings of the music of Judith Weir and Nigel Osborne. His recordings on the same label of music by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Sir James MacMillan reached no. 3 and no. 1 respectively in the classical music charts.

www.william-conway.com