Performers & composers

David Curtis

David Curtis is Artistic Director of Orchestra of the Swan, chamber orchestra for the Heart of England.  The driving force behind the Swan’s nationally acclaimed Take Note! and Music of Our Time series, his thought-provoking programming and infectious enthusiasm for contemporary music have established him as a conductor of note on the international stage, conducting in the USA, Germany, where he has recorded with Dimitri Askenasi and the Hamburg Symphonika, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, Iceland, Italy and Greece.

He has recently appeared with the Prague Chamber Orchestra and Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra.  He is a regular guest conductor with the Mikkeli City Orchestra Finland and in 2005 he gave the first performance of a new chamber symphony by leading Finnish composer Aki Yli-Salomaki.  He has since conducted the Roveniemi Chamber for Finnish Radio and in 2007 will be gust conductor at the Prague Dvorak and Olomouc Martinu Fest. 

In May and June 2007 he is conducting the Moravian Symphony Orchestra in the Dvorak's Olomouc Festival and the Martinu Fest and returns to Hungary to conduct the North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra in the autumn 2006.  In 2007 he has also been invited to conduct in the biennial Nordic Music Days Festival with the Icelandic contemporary music ensemble Caput, the first British composer to be invited to do so.

David is a champion of new work and in 2005 gave the world premieres of several new works with Orchestra of the Swan including commissions from Tansy Davies, Joseph Phibbs, Dobrinka Tabakova, and Julian Philips.  For 2005-6 he has commissioned new work from leading composers John Woolrich, Dobrinka Tabakova, Julian Philips, Errollyn Wallen, Joseph Duddell and Oscar Colomina i Bosch.

David delights in working with young musicians of all ages and abilities.  He has been guest conductor at the Moores School of Music in Houston USA giving conducting masterclasses for students and has been guest conductor at Birmingham Conservatoire and at the Guildhall School.  In Spring 2005, he conducted the American School International Orchestra in Geneva and has since conducted the orchestra in London and Beijing.  He has wide experience as guest conductor with many other student orchestras in the UK; Warwick University, Bedford County Youth Orchestra, Fife Youth Orchestra, Sheffield University, Gloucester Academy of Music and others.

Keen to take his music into the wider community, David is responsible for the Swan’s residency at Birmingham International Airport and their Education programme.  He continues to be in demand as a speaker, giving illuminating descriptions of life both on the podium, and behind the scenes.

David comes to conducting from a distinguished career as a performer, working with the leading performers of his generation and composers of international stature, including Sir William Walton, Sir Michael Tippett, Nicholas Maw and Robert Simpson.  His conducting teachers include the legendary Finnish maestro Jorma Panula and he has recently been awarded funding to pursue further research and study in Finland, Sweden, Germany and Romania.