- musical director
Gregory Batsleer is one of the UK’s busiest choral conductors and chorus masters. His current posts include Director of the Hallé Youth Choir, Chorus Master at the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Manchester Consort, as well as his association with Dorking Choral Society. Gregory recently began a post at Manchester University where he conducts and takes artistic responsibility for choirs, including the 300 strong University Chorus, a new music department chamber choir and Freshers Chorus. Within his various posts, Gregory has worked regularly with leading conductors including Sir Mark Elder, Markus Stenz, Robin Ticciati, Laurence Cummings and Sir Roger Norrington.
Gregory has previously held conducting posts with the Amadeus Orchestra, LUX the Collegiate Choir for the Episcopal Church at Princeton University and the Choir of Trinity Church, Princeton. Since 2008 he has worked as a guest conductor for the RNCM Outreach Department, where he has conducted staged productions of Bernstein’s West Side Story, Mennotti’s Amahl and The Night Visitors. In 2009, he worked on a production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Princeton Opera Festival and this summer he worked on Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 2011, Gregory will conduct Bizet’s Carmen in London.
During the 2010-2011 season, Gregory will appear as guest conductor with the Hallé, The Brandenburg Sinfonia and the University of Manchester Symphony Orchestra. He will lead an opera workshop for the SCO as well as conduct a special performance of the Messiah with the International Orchestra for Freedom. He will also be spending periods of study with Simon Halsey and the Berlin Radio Choir, and with Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. During summer 2010, Gregory represented the Royal College of Music at a conducting symposium at the Three Choirs Festival and completed a highly successful concert tour to Italy with the Hallé Youth Choir.
Gregory regularly leads workshops on singing and conducting. Recent workshops have been given for the Association of British Choral Directors and the national singing campaign SingUp. Outside the classical world, Gregory has worked with leading cultural artists such as Elbow, Damon Albarn, the composer Joe Duddell and the band James.
Gregory started performing music as a chorister and soloist with the Manchester Boys Choir and he first started conducting as a junior exhibitioner at the RNCM. Other study has taken place in Princeton, USA and in London at the Royal College of Music where he continues to study as a scholar.