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Conductor Sir Mark Elder has achieved wide acclaim in the realm of opera, but he has also devoted an equal share of his career to orchestral work. He has worked with opera companies and orchestras throughout the world and has recorded major works from both realms to great success. Elder is a principal artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the longtime music director of the Hallé Orchestra. In 2022, he was named the principal guest conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and the following year, he announced his tenure with the Hallé Orchestra will conclude at the end of the 2023-2024 season.

Elder was born in Hexham, England, on June 2, 1947. As a youth, he showed talent both as a singer and instrumentalist, serving as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and as the first-chair bassoonist in the National Youth Orchestra. He studied music at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and was later mentored by renowned conductor and musicologist Edward Downes. Elder worked briefly in minor capacities at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden before serving as the conductor of Opera Australia from 1972 to 1974. He returned to England in 1974 to serve as a regular conductor at the English National Opera. In 1979, he was appointed the music director of the English National Opera; he remained in this position until 1993. During his years as English National Opera director, Elder conducted the company in numerous highly acclaimed productions and led successful tours to the U.S., Russia, and other parts of Europe. In addition, he has conducted the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, among other important opera companies.

Elder has also been active in the orchestral world. He was music director of the Rochester Philharmonic from 1989 until 1994. In 2000, he was appointed music director of the Hallé Orchestra. He served as principal guest conductor for the London Mozart Players (1980-1983), the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1982-1985), and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1992-1995). He conducts yearly at the Proms; since 2003, he has conducted the Hallé Orchestra in these performances. Elder has also had the honor of conducting the "Last Night of the Proms" on two occasions, both times leading the BBC Symphony.

He has made numerous recordings for a variety of labels, including Chandos, EMI, and Hyperion. He has also recorded with Hallé Orchestra on the Hallé label since 2003. Among Elder's more successful recordings are his English-language version of Verdi's Rigoletto (2000) and Elgar's Symphony No. 2 (2004). Elder's repertory is broad in both the operatic and orchestral realms: though he has favored Verdi in the opera house, he has led performances of Wagner (Die Meistersinger; Parsifal), Busoni (Doktor Faust), Stravinsky (The Rake's Progress), and contemporary composers like David Blake (Toussaint). Elder's orchestral choices include many standards while taking in works by contemporary British composers like George Benjamin, Nicholas Maw, and Jonathan Harvey.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment named Elder a principal artist in 2011. That year, Opera Rara, the label committed to forgotten or neglected 19th century operas, named Elder as artistic director to help guide its endeavors; he remained in this role until 2019. That year, he released several albums, including the final opera of his Ring des Nibelungen cycle with the Hallé Orchestra, Wagner's Siegfried, on the Hallé label. A busy 2022 schedule saw Elder return to Covent Garden to lead a production of Britten's Peter Grimes, the release of his complete survey of Vaughan Williams' symphonies with the Hallé Orchestra, and he was named the principal guest conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic. In 2023, Elder led the Hallé Orchestra on recordings of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale as well as Elgar's oratorios The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles, and The Kingdom. That year, Elder announced that his tenure with the Hallé Orchestra will end with the conclusion of the 2023-2024 season; Kahchun Wong was named the orchestra's next principal conductor and artistic advisor as Elder became conductor emeritus.

Elder was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1989, was knighted in 2008, and was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2017. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke

The Britten Sinfonia is a chamber orchestra that, in its own words, "is inspired by the ethos of Benjamin Britten through world-class performances, illuminating and distinctive programmes where old meets new, and a deep commitment to bringing outstanding music to both the world's finest concert halls and the local community." The orchestra was heard on several albums in 2021, including recordings of Grayston Ives' Requiem and the rare Donizetti opera Il Paria.

The Britten Sinfonia was founded in 1992 and is based in Cambridge, England. Among the founders was the choral conductor Nicholas Cleobury. The Sinfonia operates without a principal conductor, with David Butcher serving as chief executive and artistic director from its founding until 2020. He was succeeded that year by Meurig Bowen. The Sinfonia, made up of freelance musicians working on a project-by-project basis, performs about 70 concerts a year, generally moving from place to place and taking up short residences in cities where it works with local musicians and performing arts presenters. The ensemble's project collaborators have included composers (Thomas Adès, Roderick Williams, James MacMillan), performers (Ian Bostridge, Iestyn Davies, Polyphony), conductors (Masaaki Suzuki), and jazz and popular musicians (Brad Mehldau, Rufus Wainwright).

An Associate Ensemble at the Barbican in London, the Britten Sinfonia has also held residencies in Norwich, Cambridge (where it is an Ensemble-in-Residence at the University), and elsewhere. The group has a chamber music series at London's Wigmore Hall and has appeared at the prestigious Aldeburgh Festival and BBC Proms. The Britten Sinfonia has toured North and South America, continental Europe, and Asia, including a tour of China in May 2016, with performances in Shanghai, Beijing, and Wuhan. The Britten Sinfonia, a nonprofit organization and registered charity, encompasses a Creative Learning Department, which offers a Britten Sinfonia Academy for young musicians to train and perform with members of the orchestra, as well as a Britten Sinfonia Academy Composer Hub to mentor young composers. In 2013, the orchestra launched the OPUS composition competition, inviting submissions from unpublished composers of any age. This competition was divided into two in 2021: Opus 1 and Magnum Opus. That year, the Britten Sinfonia was heard on an Opera Rara recording of Donizetti's Il Paria, under Sir Mark Elder, as well as the Signum Classics recordings Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 7-9; Gerald Barry: The Eternal Recurrence, conducted by Thomas Adès, and Grayston Ives: Requiem, with the Jesus College Choir, Cambridge, under conductor Richard Pinel. ~ James Manheim & Keith Finke