Rory Macdonald

He attended Douglas Academy in Milngavie, Glasgow and went on to read Music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He studied violin and piano, and began conducting aged 16. While at university he studied under David Zinman and Jorma Panula at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen.

From January 2006 to August 2008, Macdonald held the position of Assistant Conductor with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, and Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra. He worked closely with the orchestra's Music Director, Sir Mark Elder, and has conducted the orchestra in over 60 concerts across the North of England.

He has conducted the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Lahti Symphony, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Northern Sinfonia, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. Future debuts include the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Macdonald has also built up an extensive operatic repertoire and is now in demand in some of the world’s leading opera houses. Following his North American debut, conducting Carmen for Canadian Opera Company in January 2010, he made his US debut that autumn at Lyric Opera of Chicago conducting a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 2012 debuts in the United States included new productions of The Rape of Lucretia at Houston Grand Opera and Die Zauberflöte at San Francisco Opera. In 2012-13 he made his Wexford Festival Opera debut conducting A Village Romeo and Juliet and conducted The Cunning Little Vixen with the Bergen Philharmonic at Bergen National Opera. Future highlights include Die Zauberflöte with Royal Danish Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, Carmen with Houston Grand Opera and Santa Fe Opera and The Turn of the Screw at the Konzerthaus, Vienna .

In the 2010-11 Season he conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Hänsel und Gretel at the Royal Opera House in London. Other repertoire he has conducted at Covent Garden includes Fidelio, Das Rheingold, Owen Wingrave, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Orphée (Philip Glass). With English National Opera he has conducted The Barber of Seville, The Pearl Fishers and The Elixir of Love. In 2003 Macdonald made his Glyndebourne debut at very short notice with Idomeneo. He has since returned to Glyndebourne, conducting Così fan tutte and Albert Herring for the autumn tour.

Other opera work has included L'elisir d'amore (Welsh National Opera), The Abduction from the Seraglio (Opera North) La bohème (Danish National Opera, RTE NSO), La fanciulla del West (Grange Park Opera), and Don Giovanni (Magdeburg Opera).

After leaving Cambridge in 2001, Macdonald spent 2 years working as Assistant Conductor to Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He made his concert debut with the orchestra in 2002. During this time Macdonald also worked as an assistant conductor at the Opéra National de Lyon and Opéra National de Paris, and studied opera coaching in Vienna.

In September 2004, Macdonald joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as a conductor. He worked on numerous productions during two seasons, notably assisting Antonio Pappano on Wagner's Ring Cycle. He conducted a special extra performance of Das Rheingold for students in October 2007.

He lives in London.