Since winning the 1998 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, Paul Mann has emerged as one of the finest conductors of the younger generation, conducting many major orchestras in the UK, USA, Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Japan, Australia, and South America.
Born on Tyneside, England, he was educated at Chetham’s School of Music and at the University of York, studying piano with Denis Matthews. After an early position at Northern Ballet Theatre, and a conducting fellowship at the Royal Northern College of Music, he held two assistant conductorships in the UK, first with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra from 1996-8, and then with the London Symphony Orchestra for two seasons from 1998. In Bournemouth, he conducted more than eighty concerts, covering a huge repertoire and working with many major soloists. He made his debut with the LSO in June 1999, and has continued to appear regularly with the orchestra, both in concert and the recording studio.
Other recent engagements have included concerts and broadcasts with the Halle Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Manchester Camerata, St Petersburg Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Bergen Philharmonic, Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, New Japan Philharmonic, Norwegian Opera, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Fresno Philharmonic (California), Eugene Symphony (Oregon), New Mexico Symphony, Odense Symphony, London Mozart Players, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has also established a regular guest conductorship with the New York City Ballet. He has recorded with the English Chamber Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra for such labels as Decca and Warner Classics.
In 1999, he conducted the Duke Ellington centenary concert with the LSO and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, with Wynton Marsalis; a unique collaboration which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Later that year, he brought together the LSO and legendary rock band Deep Purple in two widely acclaimed performances of Jon Lord’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, the live video and CD of which have become international best sellers. A subsequent tour of this project saw forty performances around the world.
During the present season, in addition to many return visits, Paul Mann has also made debuts with the Queensland Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, West Australian Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He also made a highly successful debut at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, in a live broadcast with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. In the coming season, he will make further debuts with, amongst others, Portland Opera (The Marriage of Figaro), Colorado Symphony, Oregon Symphony and Copenhagen Philharmonic, will tour Italy with the Britten Sinfonia, and undertake two further major tours of Australia. He is also scheduled to return to New York to contribute to the Balanchine Centenary celebrations at Lincoln Center.
Paul Mann conducted the YSO from 1989 to 1993 – his first conducting appointment.