"Music making few will forget" - (Cherwell newspaper, May 2008)

"…rousing heartfelt playing... Beautifully stylish" (The Independent, June 19th 2008)

Toby Purser is Principal Guest Conductor of the Kammerphilhamonie Graz, and is Principal Conductor of the London International Orchestra and Orion Orchestra, which he founded. He was Assistant Conductor of L'Ensemble Orchestral de Paris for the year 2007. He gains the respect of musicians wherever he works for his passionate and insightful performances. Toby is committed to the imaginative programming of both classical western music and other musical traditions.

Orchestras he has guest-conducted recently include the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra, l’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Oxford University Orchestra and Kotorart Chamber Orchestra in Montenegro, all of which have invited him back for future concerts together. He was musical director of the King’s College London Symphony Orchestra from 1999 – 2007, and has also worked with the BBC Philharmonic, Orchestra of Opera North, and St. Petersburg Camerata. He made his London Royal Festival Hall debut performing with the Orion Symphony Orchestra, Dame Ann Murray and Nicola Benedetti, and will perform there again this December.

In recent months, Toby has been working at Grange Park Opera, including a concert with Bryn Terfel, and been musical director of Sondheim’s Sweeny Todd with Pimlico Opera and the inmates of Portsmouth Prison. Future projects include a concert with Sinfinia Viva, conducting Rigoletto for Grange Park Opera, and a series of concert with L’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris.

He studied with George Hurst, Ilya Musin (St. Petersburg State Conservatory) and Colin Metters (Royal Academy of Music), and is in demand himself as a teacher, having recently returned from giving masterclasses at the Admont Summer Academy in Austria. He was second prize winner in the 2002 Leeds conducting competition.