RICHARD LAING

Richard Laing is Principal Guest Conductor of Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, Associate Conductor of Chandos Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of Leicester Bach Choir, Nottingham Harmonic Choir and Leamington Chamber Orchestra. He began his career as Sinfonia Viva Conducting Scholar at Birmingham Conservatoire, where after nine months of study he was awarded his Masters Degree, a Postgraduate Diploma, and the Postgraduate Prize. Shortly thereafter he was appointed to the post of Associate Conductor with the virtuoso young ensemble Sinfonia Cymru. He now returns regularly to the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire as a competition adjudicator and external examiner in orchestral conducting. Richard frequently undertakes choral preparation, off-stage conducting and pre-concert talks for orchestras such as the Hallé and the BBC Symphony. He studied violin with Peter Shaffer at the University of Illinois and with Richard Ireland at the Royal Northern College of Music, and is now no. 3 first violin with the English Symphony Orchestra and a core player with the Orchestra of the Swan.

While still an undergraduate, Richard won the Kaiser Award for American History for his work using recently declassified documents to examine John F. Kennedy’s policy in Vietnam. He has presented papers on apocalyptic cinema, M.C. Escher and reality TV at the International Conferences on Film and Literature at Florida State University, and on Wagner’s Ring cycle at the International Wagner Symposium at the University of Adelaide; he is now reviews editor of The Wagner Journal and writes about opera productions taking place all around the world. Richard is currently studying for a degree in Astronomy and learning Scottish Gaelic; among his proudest achievements are being appointed Vice-President of the University of Illinois Triathlon Club and having articles published in the iconic games magazine White Dwarf: characters he created for role-playing games in the 1980s are still being used by gamers all over the world.

Richard’s hobbies include searching second-hand bookshops for first editions of the novels of Daphne du Maurier and Nevil Shute, writing short stories and novellas in a rather derivative and overly dramatic Gothic style, and butchering Rachmaninov and Liszt at the piano. Despite these faults, Richard was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts in October 2022, the same month that he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

www.richardlaing.co.uk