“Michael Waldron and his band navigate their way through the score sensitively”

(London Evening Standard)

Michael Waldron is founder and Artistic Direction of London Choral Sinfonia (LCS). He appears regularly with many of the top choirs and orchestras in the UK and beyond, having worked with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Polyphony, London Mozart Players, Holst Singers, and the City of London Choir.

He is Artistic Director of London Lyric Opera, Musical Director of Islington Choral Society, and has also held positions with Tonbridge Philharmonic, Guildford Choral Society, and Epworth Choir. He recently held the post of Interim Director of Music with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Waldron’s large and varied discography has received great critical acclaim. His debut release O Holy Night with the London Choral Sinfonia was selected by The Guardian as one of their top Christmas albums. With LCS he has since recorded a further 14 albums, including a multi-album project of orchestral and choral music by Richard Pantcheff. The album Colourise features a previously unrecorded cantata by Lennox Berkeley and the first recording of Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with Roderick Williams in an original chamber orchestration. It was selected by The Times as one of their Best Albums of 2022.

Waldron’s recording of music by Stephen Hough, Mirabilis, received numerous 5-star reviews, and was selected by Gramophone as one of their Top Albums of 2023. His 2024 recording of music by Vaughan Williams, Retrospect, was described by BBC Radio 3’s Record Review as ‘delightful, especially performed as radiantly as it is here’. Gramophone named it one of their Top Albums of 2024, and it features in their Top 20 Best Recordings of Vaughan Williams. Waldron’s latest release features the music of Malcolm Arnold, with several world premiere recordings and performances from violinists Jack Liebeck and Alexander Sitkovetsky. Praised as ‘supremely planned’ (Gramophone), the album has received unanimous critical praise, with 5 star reviews in BBC Music Magazine and Choir & Organ. Upcoming releases include music by Benjamin Britten, Arthur Oldham, and Edward Picton-Turbervill.

Concert highlights include Carlos Acosta’s critically-acclaimed On Before at Norwich Theatre Royal; concerts with Polyphony as part of the Swansea Festival; Britten St Nicolas at the Dartington International Festival; Elgar Cello Concerto, Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem and Rachmaninoff Symphony No.2 with Tonbridge Philharmonic; and an all-America programme with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and City of London Choir.

Waldron enjoys extensive operatic work, including shows and projects for the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Buxton International Festival, Opera Della Luna, West Green Opera and the National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company. Highlights include directing the Olivier award-winning Coram Boy (Chichester Festival Theatre and The Lowry), and also Opera Della Luna’s critically-acclaimed production of HMS Pinafore and the original Sweeney Todd melodrama (Theatre Royal, Bath). This summer he conducted Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld this summer at IF Opera Festival, and returned to the Theatre Royal, Bath, the Salisbury Playhouse and Wilton’s Music Hall to conduct Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado for Opera Della Luna.

Born in Manchester, Waldron began his musical training as a chorister at St Ambrose College. He studied conducting under Stephen Layton during his four years as Organ Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. During this time Michael was involved with the Choir’s numerous international tours, concerts, broadcasts and Gramophone award-winning recordings.