Martin West - Conductor

Martin West held the position of Conductor of the Cambridge Philharmonic Society for 7 years "with great pride", during which he introduced many lesser known works alongside the established ones.

He is credited with raising the standard of the performance of the Cambridge Philharmonic to its current level. One reviewer described a recent performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony by writing "In over 50 years of concert going in Cambridge, I have never heard playing of such consistency. power and quality. This was simply great music-making by any standard, in the full sense of that much overused phrase".

Martin West is an established expert in conducting for ballet. Since 1997, alongside his work with the Philharmonic, he has worked with English National Ballet, and in 2004 was appointed Principal Conductor. Since making his debut with San Francisco Ballet in the 2002-3 season he has worked several times with them and this relationship has resulted in his appointment as Music Director and Principal Conductor, a post he will begin in September this year. He will continue his association with English National Ballet.

Increasingly in demand as a guest artist, he made his Dutch debut in the autumn of 2004 conducting the Holland Symfonia and Introdans. Amongst the other orchestras with whom he has worked are the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, whom he has conducted a number of times, the Halle Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. He had a long association with Pimlico Opera and has conducted on many of their productions and ground breaking prison projects, including, a performance of West Side Story in HM Prison Winchester.

Born in Bolton, he studied mathematics at St Catharine's College, Cambridge before completing his musical studies at the Royal Academy of Music and St Petersburg Conservatory. He was recently awarded the ARAM for his outstanding work in music.