Anthony Bradbury - Music Director

Anthony Bradbury was born in Worcestershire and attended King Edward VI College, Stourbridge, where he played clarinet, piano and percussion with numerous orchestras, ensembles and wind bands. He continued his education at Brasenose College, Oxford University, where he graduated with an MA in Music. Whilst at Oxford, Anthony was awarded a scholarship to conduct the Brasenose chapel choir.
Anthony is now a freelance conductor who works with a number of Birmingham-based organisations. In addition to his work with the Central England Ensemble (CEE), he has appeared as a guest conductor with the Sinfonia of Birmingham and the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra.

He is also involved with the new CBSO Youth Orchestra which has incorporated the Midland Youth Orchestra (MYO) of which he was Music Director; as well as being on the CBSO Youth Orchestra’s Advisory Board, Anthony shared the conducting of its inaugural concert with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) Music Director, Sakari Oramo, in October 2004, and returned to conduct the orchestra in October 2006, again with Sakari Oramo, in an all-Stravinsky concert as part of the CBSO’s ‘IgorFest’ Stravinsky project, with The Sunday Times saying that he “drew a feisty performance from the excellent players.”

Anthony has performed abroad in France, Belgium, Holland, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic (Prague and Southern Bohemia) and Canada. Anthony has also been Music Director of Birmingham Festival Choral Society (BFCS) which, having been founded in 1843, is the longest established chorus still active in Birmingham. With these various organisations, he has directed a number of premieres and second performances, including music by Ruth Byrchmore and Andrew Downes (with MYO and CEE), Mikhail Tyetieryev and John Joubert (with BFCS). Other activities have included a BBC Radio 3 broadcast of three Christmas carols with BFCS.

Anthony is a member of the Association of British Choral Directors (ABCD) and serves on the Executive Board of the National Association of Youth Orchestras (NAYO).

Since becoming the CEE’s Principal Conductor in January 2002, and subsequently its Music Director from 2007, Anthony has directed the orchestra in a number of contemporary works including music by Andrew Downes, Nathan Rose, David Fanshawe, David Bradbury, Stephen Williams, Michael Whitcroft, Guy Woolfenden and James Langley, alongside some cornerstones of the repertoire including Holst’s The Planets Suite, Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, Vaughan Williams’ London Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Anthony has also conducted the CEE on two foreign tours: the first, in March 2005, to Bremen, Germany, and the second, in February 2007, to Paris.