Rory Macdonald

Conductor

“Rory Macdonald’s conducting was admirably muscular and wholehearted, drawing fiercely impassioned playing from the orchestra.”
The Telegraph

Scottish-born Rory Macdonald has rapidly established himself as one of Britain’s most talented, dynamic young conductors. Equally at home on the concert platform and in the opera house, he leads distinctive interpretations of classical and romantic repertoire, and brings passion and intellectual insight to contemporary scores.

Since serving for two years as its Assistant Conductor, he has returned regularly to the Hallé Orchestra, with whom he has conducted over 50 concerts. Other recent guest conducting engagements have included debuts with the Bergen Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Kammerphilharmonie, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Lahti Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, all of which resulted in re-invitations. In 2011/12, Macdonald makes debuts with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at London’s Barbican Hall and with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Future highlights also include his debuts with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia, and returns to the Hallé and Lahti Symphony orchestras. His first recording, with the BBC Scottish SO, is released on Hyperion in April 2012.

Macdonald has also built up an extensive operatic repertoire and is now in demand in some of the world’s leading opera houses. Following his highly successful North American debut, conducting Carmen for the Canadian Opera Company in January 2010, Macdonald made his US debut that autumn at Lyric Opera of Chicago, conducting a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 2012 debuts in the United States include new productions of The Rape of Lucretia at Houston Grand Opera (where he will return for Carmen in 2014) and Die Zauberflöte at San Francisco Opera. In the 2010-11 Season he conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Hänsel und Gretel at the Royal Opera House in London. Other repertoire he has conducted at Covent Garden includes Fidelio, Das Rheingold, Owen Wingrave, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Orphée (Philip Glass). Following productions of The Barber of Seville and The Pearl Fishers at English National Opera he opens their 2011-12 Season with The Elixir of Love. He has conducted Idomeneo, Cosi fan tutte and Albert Herring for Glyndebourne on Tour, L’elisir d’amore for Welsh National Opera and The Abduction from the Seraglio for Opera North. In 2013 he will conduct The Cunning Little Vixen with the Bergen Philharmonic at Den Nye Opera in Bergen.

Rory Macdonald studied music at Cambridge University, and plays violin and piano. While at university he studied under David Zinman and Jorma Panula at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen. After graduation from Cambridge he was appointed assistant conductor to Iván Fischer at the Budapest Festival Orchestra (2001-2003), and to Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra (2006-2008). He was also a member of the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House (2004-2006), where he worked closely with Antonio Pappano on major projects such as the complete Ring cycle, and conducted performances of several operas.

Rory Macdonald is represented by Intermusica worldwide.
Jan 2012 / 521 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.

English National Orchestra / Donizetti The Elixir of Love
“Rory Macdonald is the man who’s revived this production in more ways than one, and he guides the ENO Orchestra through a whizzing account of this most frolicsome of 19th-century scores. Balance, tempo, pace, idiom and warmth – every imaginable quality is exactly right and the musicians play like angels under his baton. Such a talent should be grabbed and glorified in some permanent capacity by one of the major houses.

The evening is replete with delights (not least a splendidly-sung cameo from Ella Kirkpatrick as Giannetta) and Rory Macdonald’s spry baton work ensures that Kelley Rourke’s Americanisation of Romani’s libretto is substantially less obtrusive than last time.”
Whatsonstage.com, September 2011

“In the pit, another talented young artist - conductor Rory Macdonald - impresses with the fluency and bounce he brings to the melodious bel canto score. It’s a delightful evening”.
The Stage, September 2011

“The ENO Orchestra's performance, highly spirited throughout, was led with obvious enthusiasm by Rory MacDonald... the performance was cheering evidence of the standard that ENO, at its best, can now boast.” Musicalcriticism.com, September 2011

Hallé Orchestra / Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Walton
“Rory Macdonald again revealed evidence of his impressive conducting credentials in both works, while finding a nice sense of mystery in the opening pages of Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night Overture before the music fairly danced at times.”
Shefield Telegraph, June 2011

Hallé Orchestra / Sibelius, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky
“Rory Macdonald – previously the Hallé’s assistant conductor and now making an international career – is in charge of the final Opus One programme of the 2010-11 season.

Very much in charge, too. His laid-back, personal style hides a maestro who has precise ideas about his music and a precise ability to get what he wants. He has the gift of being able to embody the nature of the music in his movements, at the same time as giving the players the technical signals they need.

I guess it helps that he knows how the orchestra sounds in the Bridgewater Hall as well as anyone. And he’d made sure that the first piece (Sibelius’ tone poem, ‘Pohjola’s Daughter’) set the standard very high indeed: it was disciplined, rhythmically buoyant, with vivid atmosphere and a marvellously gentle ending...

Macdonald had the second half to himself, Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night overture sharing the same performance qualities as the Sibelius. Stravinsky’s Firebird suite (in the longer, 1945, version) had moments of glory – Laurence Rogers’ horn solos among them – and a finale that stabbed to its conclusion with a considerable flourish.”
Manchester Evening News, May 2011

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Dvorak, Grieg, Sibelius Symphony No.3
“Rory Macdonald's performance with the BBC SSO yesterday shows that the young Scottish conductor absolutely gets the point of the piece. Sure, his pacing of the electric opening was modest, but it was only moments before it began to feel volcanic in a full-blooded though raw and lean SSO performance, really erupting in the recapitulation in the first movement. …

The finale, with its phenomenal build-up and its extraordinarily abrupt ending, was red meat, and powerhouse stuff right to the close.

In Dvorak's Symphonic Variations, opening the concert, Macdonald balanced the concise elements in the variations with an overall feeling of breadth: ergo, the piece didn't sound bitty.”
The Herald, February 2011

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden / Rossini Il Barbiere di Siviglia
“The overwhelming source of satisfaction was the marvellous conducting of Rory Macdonald, so that even the Overture sprang some surprises, and not perverse ones. The action onstage is pretty broad comedy, though well executed, and the team of singers this time round is decent without anyone remarkable, at least as yet. But the support they received from the pit, the timing of the ensembles in particular, and the range of colours from the orchestra, and emotional nuances, were an entrancing delight … This is far too good to miss.”
The Spectator, January 2011

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden / Humperdinck Hänsel und Gretel
“That the performance still gives enormous pleasure is due to the radiant conducting of Rory Macdonald.. full of grace, merriment and charm.”
The Telegraph, December 2010

Lyric Opera of Chicago / Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Young Scottish conductor Rory Macdonald conveyed a sense of deep, unsettled magic from the opening bars of Britten’s vividly coloured score. The lazy, queasy sway of Lyric’s strings immediately set us on uncertain ground, as shimmering and treacherous as an icy sidewalk. We didn’t know exactly where we were, but the hint of danger was both frightening and enthralling.”
Musical America, November 2010

English National Opera / Bizet The Pearl Fishers
“Rory Macdonald’s conducting was admirably muscular and wholehearted, drawing fiercely impassioned playing from the orchestra.”
The Telegraph, June 2010

“Rory Macdonald in the pit drives Bizet’s score with impulsive ardour firing up the rabble-rousing choruses and fervent hymns of praise.”
The Independent, May 2010

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Vivier, Carter, Dillon
“All of the music, conducted by Rory Macdonald with direction and purpose, was lucid and intelligible. Elliott Carter’s Adagio Tenebroso was gobsmacking, ruminative and electrifying. Under this remarkable conductor, it was an astounding display of the SSO’s expertise and musicianship.”
The Herald, March 2010

Welsh National Opera / Donizetti L'Elisir d'Amore
“Lilt, sparkle, togetherness: these are the defining features of the WNO orchestra under Rory Macdonald.”
The Times, February 2009