Rory Macdonald stands out as one of the most interesting British conductors of his generation. As an opera conductor, he is particularly admired for his interpretations of Mozart and Britten. He has conducted Britten’s Peter Grimes at the Brisbane Festival, Owen Wingrave and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Albert Herring for Glyndebourne on Tour, and The Turn of the Screw at the Wiener Konzerthaus. In addition, he marked his US debut with A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which was followed by The Rape of Lucretia at the Houston Grand Opera.

Macdonald made his debut with Oper Frankfurt in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Prior to that, he has conducted new productions of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera and the Royal Danish Opera. His other operatic engagements include Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen for the Bergen National Opera as well as new productions of Bizet’s Carmen at the Canadian Opera Company, the Houston Grand Opera and the Santa Fe Opera.

On the concert podium, Macdonald has worked with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica di Bologna, the Prague Philharmonia, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the Hallé Orchestra among others. He has conducted the premieres of works by notable composers such as Sir James MacMillan, Sally Beamish and Geoffrey Gordon.

Macdonald studied music at the University of Cambridge. While at university he studied under David Zinman and Jorma Panula at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen. After graduating from Cambridge he was appointed assistant conductor to Iván Fischer at the Budapest Festival Orchestra and to Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra. He was also a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, where he worked closely with Sir Antonio Pappano.