Mark Finch, Conductor

Mark Finch: ConductorMark Finch was born in Gloucester and educated at Durham University. He studied piano with Herbert Sumsion, composition with David Lumsdaine and conducting with George Hurst and Adrian Leaper.

He is head of Music at Backwell School near Bristol, having previously taught in the West Midlands, where he conducted the Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra, youth orchestras, choirs, and Sandwell Sinfonia.

Mark has conducted the Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra since 1994, building a reputation for championing neglected English music such as Gurney’s War Elegy, Parry’s Piano Concerto and Howells’ Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra.

From 1999-2004 Mark was musical director of Bristol Opera, performing Die Fledermaus, Carmen, Madame Butterfly, Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni and winning a NODA Rosebowl for Verdi’s Macbeth. In 1993, to national acclaim, Mark conducted the first British performance of Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes.

In 2005 he was appointed conductor of the Bristol Schools’ Philharmonia.