BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET: MUSIC STAFF

Paul Murphy Principal Conductor

Paul Murphy studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music. He joined the Company in 1992 and was appointed Principal Conductor in 1997. He has been a guest conductor with The Royal Ballet since 1994 and conductor of The Royal Ballet School Annual Performance since 2005. He has also conducted for New York City Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Australian Ballet, BalletBoyz, NDT 1, Acosta Danza, Finnish National Ballet and Tokyo Ballet at La Scala, Milan. He has been a regular guest conductor with the National Ballet of Japan since 2008 and made his debut with the Sarasota Ballet in March 2022 conducting the world premiere of David Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors. Away from the theatre, he has guest conducted the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Hallé, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, Manchester Camerata, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has made numerous recordings for BBC television and radio, and discs for labels such as Naxos, ASV and Opus Arte.

Robert Gibbs Leader

Robert Gibbs studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music, where he won the Tagore Gold Medal. He joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1994 as co-leader, taking over as leader in 1998 from Yuri Torchinsky. He is also leader of the London Festival Orchestra and has often guest-led for the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, New Queen’s Hall Orchestra and several orchestras in Japan. He has also led Nederlands Ballet Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic. He has played as Soloist throughout the UK, Europe, Latin America and the Far East, with recent concerto performances in Russia and China. On many occasions he has been Soloist for Birmingham Royal Ballet and visiting companies with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. His recordings include the violin and piano works of Bax, Goossens and W.H. Reed, and chamber music by Korngold, Rawsthorne, Mozart and Brahms

Philip Ellis Conductor

Conductor of Birmingham

Royal Ballet since 1990, Philip is increasingly in demand as a guest conductor. He has appeared regularly with The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, Paris Opéra Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Mikhailovsky Ballet and Australian Ballet. He has also conducted Sarasota Ballet, Angel Corella Ballet throughout Spain, Semper Opera Ballet in Dresden, English National Ballet, Gothenburg Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Polish National Ballet and Kobayashi Ballet in Tokyo. He was nominated for ‘Best Conductor’ at the inaugural Taglioni European Ballet Awards. As a concert conductor he has worked with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Concert Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, National Symphony of Mexico, Württemburgische Philharmonie Reutingen, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Belgian National Orchestra, Flanders Symphony, Western Australian Symphony and Sydney Symphony. He has made CD recordings with the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is Music Director of the Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

Charlotte Politi Constant Lambert Conducting Fellowship

Charlotte is a Constant Lambert Conducting Fellow with The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet. She was born in Paris and grew up in Italy, where she studied conducting with mentors Piero Bellugi and Oleg Caetani, and was selected as a conducting fellow at the Accademia Chigiana in 2015. She later studied at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe (Germany), and she graduated with a Masters degree from the University of Michigan (USA) under the guidance of Kenneth Kiesler. In 2020 she was selected by Riccardo Muti for the Italian Opera Academy, where she studied Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni and Pagliacci by Leoncavallo under the guidance of Maestro Muti and performed the operas with Orchestra Luigi Cherubini and a cast of internationally renowned singers. She has conducted for orchestras including: Baden-Baden Philharmonie, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Philharmonisches

Kammerorchester Dresden, Orchestra da Camera del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Martin Georgiev Guest Conductor

British-Bulgarian conductor and composer Martin Georgiev gained a conducting diploma and PhD in composition at the Royal Academy of Music. He has collaborated with orchestras around the world. Since 2013 he has been Assistant Conductor with The Royal Ballet, involved with the world premieres of Woolf Works, Multiverse, Connectome, Frankenstein, Yugen, Obsidian Tear, The Illustrated Farewell, Strapless, Corybantic Games, The Wind, Raven Girl, The Unknown Soldier, Medusa, The Weathering and Like Water for Chocolate, and in the current season he is conducting Mayerling and Woolf Works at the Royal Opera House, as well as making debuts with Netherlands Dance Theatre and Northern Ballet. For BRB he conducted the world premieres of Ignite (nominated for Benois de la danse, 2018) and A Brief Nostalgia, as well as Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet and Rosie Kay’s Romeo + Juliet. Born in Varna, he was laureate of the TACTUS International Composers’ Forum in Brussels and has won the Grand Prize of the Sofia National Philharmonic Orchestra, and over 20 other awards and scholarships.

Matthew Drury Company Pianist

Born in Bury, Matthew Drury began piano lessons with local teacher Raymond Burrill. He later studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, firstly under Martin Roscoe and then with Marjorie Clementi. Upon gaining his music degree he worked as a freelance musician, eventually becoming a music teacher in Accrington. In 2004 he secured the position of pianist at Birmingham’s Elmhurst Ballet School two years later joined Birmingham Royal Ballet with which he has toured extensively, both in the UK and overseas. In 2012, he co-wrote a choral piece, Lancashire Hill Country, with teacher and percussionist Helen Davies, a performance of which was given to Her Majesty the Queen in honour of the Diamond Jubilee. Matthew lives in Staffordshire with his wife, son and dog, Oscar.

Jeanette Wong Head Of Piano

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jeanette obtained her First-Class Honours and Master’s Degree with Distinction under Malcolm Wilson at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She was awarded the RBC Honorary Membership in 2009 (HonRBC) for her outstanding contribution to her profession. She then studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, under András Kemenes, after winning the Joseph Weingarten Scholarship. She was a full-time pianist at the Elmhurst Ballet School for six years before joining Birmingham Royal Ballet. In 2014, she was the dance pianist for Eugene Onegin at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. She also sings with the award-winning CBSO Chorus.

Ross Williams Company Pianist

Ross Williams was born and educated in Cheshire and studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music.