Adrian Leaper is Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in Madrid, Spain's equivalent of the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in London. He was previously made Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Filharmónia de Gran Canaria in 1994, staying there until taking up his present position in 2001. He first came to prominence when he was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester for five years between 1986 / 91 where he was eventually conducting nearly 30 concerts each season.
Adrian Leaper has conducted all four major London orchestras, the Symphony Orchestras of Moscow, Vienna and Prague Symphony Orchestras, several Radio Symphony Orchestras in countries that include the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Eire and Norway as well as others ranging from L'Orcheste de la Suisse Romande in Switzerland to Sweden's Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchester in Salzburg, Poland's National Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Malaysian Philharmonic orchestras in addition to working throughout Spain with other orchestras there such as the Orquesta Ciudad de Sevilla, Orquesta Ciudad de Málaga and Real Orquesta de Galicia whilst retaining close contact with the Orquesta Filharmónia de Gran Canaria.
Adrian Leaper's repertoire has grown over the years to extend well beyond normal core classical pieces to also encompass Sibelius, Janácek, Elgar, Dvorák and Mahler plus an empathy with music of Spanish composers. Beyond these he has had considerable success with pieces like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Bartók Miraculous Mandarin, Martinu's St. Francisco Frescoes, Shostakovitch' Symphony No. 1 and Janacek's Jenufa with Eve Urbanova and Nancy Gustaveson. He has also worked several times with top level artists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Felicity Lott, Garrick Ohlssen, Rudolf Buchbinder, Mischa Maisky, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Alicia de Larrocha, Pierre Amoyal, Ernst Kovacic, Cho-Liang Lin and Anne-Sofie von Otter whilst working with them. This extraordinary breadth is also reflected in an enormous discography of nearly 80 CD recordings in his career to date nearly all of which have been recorded for Arte Nova, ASV, Naxos/Marco Polo and La Mota de Polvo which ranges from standard classical repertory - including series of Mahler, Sibelius, Nielsen and Dvorak symphonies - through core Russian and central European works, staples of the English concert platform alongside British light music classics and, for ASV, Spanish twentieth century music amongst which are premier recordings of works by Granados, Ernesto Halffter, Rodo, Obradores and Conrado del Campo.
October 2009
