Charities Philharmonia

MICHAEL ALEXANDER YOUNG
(Music Director / Conductor)

Michael Alexander Young is Music Director of Charities Philharmonia, first appointed Associate Conductor of Sinfonia Viva and was the 2006-2007 Paul Woodhouse Conducting Fellow with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. A major prize-winner in the July 2005 Eighth Leeds Conductors’ Competition, Michael won both the audience award (Kenneth Tyghe Memorial Prize for best performance) and the Headley/sinfonia ViVA Associate Conductor Prize for ‘commanding an electrifying account of Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony…’ (Yorkshire Post). In October 2006, Michael competed against an initial pool of 150 competitors over two weeks to win third prize at the final of the Ninth International Pedrotti Competition for Orchestral Conductors in Trento, Italy. Mario Calderini, from the Pedrotti association, wrote of Michael: ‘As one of the founding members of the Pedrotti Association and promoter of the competition, I followed all the nine editions and I had the chance to watch and listen to hundreds of young conductors. Very rarely have I had the opportunity to observe such a musical sensibility, elegance in conducting and such understanding and involvement in the composer’s meaning’.

Michael began conducting under the tutelage of Eno Koço as an undergraduate at the University of Leeds, where he was awarded the Lord Snowden Prize for his outstanding contribution to music. He directed all the major university orchestras and ensembles, and was instrumental in raising the profile of classical music at the university. He formed the Leeds University Union Symphony Chorus and initiated a series of charity concerts in aid of Cancer Research UK at Leeds Town Hall, which have since become annual events.

Whilst completing postgraduate conducting, piano and harpsichord studies at the Royal College of Music (with Neil Thomson, Neil Immelman and Robert Woolley respectively), Michael was awarded the London Philharmonic Orchestra Conducting Fellowship by Kurt Masur, the newly created position being especially deferred for him until graduation. As LPO fellow Michael has assisted various conductors including Carl Davis, Mark Elder and Vladimir Jurowski and conducted the orchestra for its pioneering Colourstrings project.

Michael conducts primarily overseas including orchestras in Russia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain. He has also participated in masterclasses with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi, Gianandrea Noseda, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and twice with Bernard Haitink, whom he subsequently assisted in London.



home concerts musicians biographies Michael Young Mihkel Kerem M. Szymanski Luis Parés charity contact	MICHAEL ALEXANDER YOUNG (Music Director / Conductor) Michael Alexander Young is Music Director of Charities Philharmonia, first appointed Associate Conductor of Sinfonia Viva and was the 2006-2007 Paul Woodhouse Conducting Fellow with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. A major prize-winner in the July 2005 Eighth Leeds Conductors’ Competition, Michael won both the audience award (Kenneth Tyghe Memorial Prize for best performance) and the Headley/sinfonia ViVA Associate Conductor Prize for ‘commanding an electrifying account of Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony…’ (Yorkshire Post). In October 2006, Michael competed against an initial pool of 150 competitors over two weeks to win third prize at the final of the Ninth International Pedrotti Competition for Orchestral Conductors in Trento, Italy. Mario Calderini, from the Pedrotti association, wrote of Michael: ‘As one of the founding members of the Pedrotti Association and promoter of the competition, I followed all the nine editions and I had the chance to watch and listen to hundreds of young conductors. Very rarely have I had the opportunity to observe such a musical sensibility, elegance in conducting and such understanding and involvement in the composer’s meaning’. Michael began conducting under the tutelage of Eno Koço as an undergraduate at the University of Leeds, where he was awarded the Lord Snowden Prize for his outstanding contribution to music. He directed all the major university orchestras and ensembles, and was instrumental in raising the profile of classical music at the university. He formed the Leeds University Union Symphony Chorus and initiated a series of charity concerts in aid of Cancer Research UK at Leeds Town Hall, which have since become annual events. Whilst completing postgraduate conducting, piano and harpsichord studies at the Royal College of Music (with Neil Thomson, Neil Immelman and Robert Woolley respectively), Michael was awarded the London Philharmonic Orchestra Conducting Fellowship by Kurt Masur, the newly created position being especially deferred for him until graduation. As LPO fellow Michael has assisted various conductors including Carl Davis, Mark Elder and Vladimir Jurowski and conducted the orchestra for its pioneering Colourstrings project. Michael conducts primarily overseas including orchestras in Russia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain. He has also participated in masterclasses with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi, Gianandrea Noseda, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and twice with Bernard Haitink, whom he subsequently assisted in London.


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