Neil Thomson
was born in London in 1966, studied violin and viola at the Royal Academy of Music (1984-87) and conducting with Norman Del Mar at the Royal College of Music (1987-89). He was a member of the conducting class at Tanglewood Summer School in 1989 where his teachers included Gustav Meier, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Sanderling and Leonard Bernstein.

Since March 2014 he has served as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra in Brazil. The orchestra has rapidly developed a reputation for its dynamic performances, its wide-ranging repertoire (with a special emphasis on Brazilian and contemporary music). In December 2018 the orchestra performed the South American debut of Messiaen's monumental "Des Canyons aux Étoiles". This was a highlight in development of the orchestra and an extremely important moment in the history of Brazilian orchestral music.

In the UK he has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Hallé, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera.

Recent débuts include concerts with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Century Orchestra Osaka, Kansai Philharmonic, Concert Orchestra, Lahti Sinfonia, Romanian National Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Ulster Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Orchestra of Gothenburg Opera, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra and Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has performed with many distinguished soloists including Sir James Galway, Dame Moura Lympany, Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Felicity Lott, Philip Langridge, Sarah Chang, Antonio Meneses, Nelson Freire, Alice Zawadzki, Steven Isserlis, Julian Lloyd Webber, David Geringas, Natalie Clein, Gyorgy Pauk, Brett Dean, Jean-Philippe Collard, Stephen Hough, Peter Jablonski, Jean-Louis Steuerman, Dame Evelyn Glennie and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.

Recent collaborations include Brahms Second Piano Concerto with Nelson Freire, a tour of Japan with Nobuyuki Tsujii and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Unsuk Chin Violin Concerto with Viviane Hagner, an opera gala with Danielle de Niese, tours in Brazil with Antonio Meneses, Cristian Budu and Jean Louis Steuerman, Liszt Second Piano Concerto and Brahms Second Piano Concerto with Stephen Hough, the premiere of Joseph Phibb’s new Percussion Concerto with Dame Evelyn Glennie and a rare performance of the complete Incidental Music from ‘Hassan’ by Delius at the Cheltenham Festival.

Alongside his symphonic work he also works with projects with film. He gave the premiere of the newly reconstructed score for 'Singin' in the Rain' at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2013. Other films include 'Psycho', 'Vertigo', 'Casablanca', 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Fantasia', ´Amadeus´ and 'Titanic'. He recently gave the premiere, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, of ‘Gene Kelly; A Life in Music’, a project with film devised by the widow of Gene Kelly, Patricia Kelly, to preserve the artist’s musical heritage.

Recordings include some discs the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra and three discs of orchestral music by Cesar Guerra-Peixe with the Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently engaged on a project to record all 14 symphonies of Claudio Santoro for Naxos with the OFG.

From 1992 until 2006 he served as Head of Conducting at the Royal College of Music. The youngest-ever incumbent of this post (first held by Sir Adrian Boult in 1919 and later by Norman Del Mar), he was made an Honorary Member of the RCM in 1994 for his services to the institution and has established an enviable reputation as an orchestral trainer.

His skills as a natural communicator have enhanced an already growing reputation as a professor throughout Europe. He has been a Guest Professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Krakow Academy of Music, the Conservatoire "Arrigo Boito" in Parma, the Lithuanian Academy of Music, the Campos do Jordão Festival and the Los Angeles Conducting Workshop. In 2002 he was invited by Lorin Maazel to be on the jury for the European rounds of the Maazel Conducting Competitionandin 2007 was on the jury, alongside Gunther Schuller, of the Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition in Mexico City.