Bertie Baigent

Bertie Baigent is the winner of the Grand Prix at the 2022 International Conducting Competition Rotterdam, Music Director of Waterperry Opera Festival and Assistant Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He won the Orchestra Award at the 2021 Tokyo International Conducting Competition and returns to Japan this summer to conduct the NHK Symphony. He will also return to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra following his recent debut there, and participation in the League of American Orchestras’ Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview. Recent highlights for Bertie have included his debut at Opera Holland Park; a series of all-Beethoven concerts with the Colorado Symphony; and productions of "L’elisir d’amore", "Die Zauberflöte", "Don Giovanni", "Così fan tutte", "Dido and Aeneas" and "Partenope" – directing the latter two from the harpsichord. Bertie has assisted Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Jac van Steen and Masaaki Suzuki at the Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, London Sinfonietta and Britten Sinfonia. He has participated in masterclasses with Martyn Brabbins and Pierre-André Valade, and as part of the Dirigentenforum in Germany. Born in 1995, Bertie studied at the Royal Academy of Music where he won the Sir Henry Wood Scholarship and Ernest Read Prize. Bertie’s compositions have been awarded commissions and prizes by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the National Centre for Early Music.