BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Andrew Constantine
Biography BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Andrew Constantine
Andrew Constantine
currently serves as music director of both the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra and Reading Symphony Orchestra in the United States and was previously associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He began his conducting career in Leicester with the Bardi Orchestra and was later awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music degree by the University of Leicester for his “services to music.” After winning the first Donatella Flick Conducting Competition he studied at the Leningrad State Conservatory with the legendary teacher Ilya Musin who described him as, a “brilliant representative of the conducting art”, and at the Academia Chigiana in Siena. Prior to his move to the US in 2004 he had already gained an enviable reputation as a conductor of great style and charisma, and also performed and recorded with most of the prestigious London orchestras including the Philharmonia, London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic. With a strong commitment to education and to bringing great music to as wide an audience as possible, Andrew Constantine has developed numerous creative and innovative programs and was awarded a British NESTA Fellowship in recognition of his achievements.
BBC National Orchestra
of Wales gave its first performance in April 1928 and occupies a special role as both a broadcast orchestra and the national symphony orchestra of Wales. The Orchestra is supported by the Arts Council of Wales.
The Orchestra is based at BBC Hoddinott Hall, which is named after Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott, and is part of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.
The Orchestra presents an annual season at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, where it is Orchestra-in-Residence, as well as concerts in venues across Wales and beyond; including annual performances at the BBC Proms and biannually at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
As one of the six BBC Performing Groups the Orchestra has a busy schedule of recordings, broadcasts and concerts, for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC television. The Orchestra can also be heard on a number of BBC programmes, providing the music for the BBC Natural History Unit’s Hidden Kingdoms, BBC Cymru Wales’s Atlantis and of course as the Doctor Who orchestra.
