The Hallé Orchestra has appointed Jamie Phillips as its new assistant conductor, to take up the post in September this year.
Phillips takes over from Andrew Gourlay, whose tenure as assistant conductor ends after the Hallé Youth Orchestra’s tour to Prague in July.
Born in Cheshire in 1991, Phillips began his musical training as a trumpeter, playing in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in 2007-09. He made his conducting debut in Birmingham Town Hall in December 2008 and went on to form a chamber orchestra drawn from the National Youth Orchestra.
Like Gourlay, Phillips is a graduate of the joint course at the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music.
More recently, Phillips was the youngest competitor in the 2011 Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors in France, where he reached the semi-finals. Phillips was also the youngest finalist in the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award 2012 where he was invited to conduct the Camerata Salzburg at the 2013 Salzburg Festival.
‘We are delighted about Jamie’s appointment as assistant conductor,’ said the Hallé Orchestra’s chief executive, John Summers. ‘He was the unanimous choice of the selection panel from an extremely talented field.’
As assistant conductor, Phillips will work with the Hallé Orchestra’s music director, Sir Mark Elder, to help prepare concerts and will act as music director and conductor of the Hallé Youth Orchestra.
Cecilia Stinton