Born in Sunderland, Simon Wright was educated at Chetham’s School, Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music. A regular accompanist of the Hallé Choir, often working with Sir John Barbirolli, he won a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College at the age of sixteen. Four years later he was appointed Organist of the Benedictine foundation at Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire, a post which he relinquished in the summer of 2005. As a conductor Simon Wright has earned universal respect and acclaim. Throughout his career, which also embraces rôles as organist, accompanist, arranger and teacher, he has become established as a musician of enormous integrity, winning the admiration of musicians, audiences and critics alike. He has conducted many British orchestras including the Philharmonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,at the age of sixteen Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, English Northern Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata and Northern Chamber Orchestra. A prizewinner in the 1986 Leeds Conducting Competition, he has been Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Leeds Festival Chorus since 1975 and Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the York Guildhall Orchestra since 1992. Deeply committed to the music of the twentieth and 21st centuries, he has conducted many orchestral and choral premières including Dominic Muldowney’s The Fall of Jerusalem, the British première of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Canticum Canticorum with the Leeds Festival Chorus and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Stimpson’s Clouds of War with the Tallis Chamber Choir and English Chamber Orchestra and, most recently, David Matthews’s Fanfares and Flowers with the Trinity College of Music Wind Orchestra. He has toured extensively within Europe, appearing at many major festivals, including Edinburgh, and made his American début in New York in 1986. Recordings, both as conductor and keyboard-player, with John Wallace, the Wallace Collection and with the Philharmonia form a major part of his discography, which includes recordings on the EMI, Nimbus, Collins Classics, GMN and IMP Masters labels. In 2003 he made his début with the Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducting a recording of British trumpet concertos with John Wallace, a recording that was released on the Sanctuary Classics label. European engagements have included recordings and concerts with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen and the Philharmonie und Kammerphilharmonie des Mitteldeutschen Rundfunks Leipzig.