Lionel Friend LRAM ARCM

Lionel Friend, an experienced opera conductor and coach, began his career working with Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. For three years he was a Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater in Kassel, Germany, before spending thirteen years as Staff Conductor at English National Opera. He has also worked at the Bayreuth Festival, where he assisted Daniel Barenboim, and has made Wagner something of a speciality. In addition to the UK, he has conducted opera in Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Australia and the USA, recently making his debut in Los Angeles.  In the concert hall and recording studio he has worked with many distinguished ensembles and orchestras all over the world.

Also active as pianist and coach, he is on the regular visiting staff at the Royal College of Music and here at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama; and since 2003 has been Conductor in Residence at the Birmingham Conservatoire.