Christopher Seaman

General Management

​

British conductor Christopher Seaman is noted for his inspiring and authoritative music making.

​

Music Director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (New York) until 2011, he was subsequently named Conductor Laureate. Previous positions include Music Director to the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra (Florida) for ten years, Conductor-in-Residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Adviser of the San Antonio Symphony, and Principal Conductor of both the BBC Scottish Symphony and the Northern Sinfonia.

 

He is recognised for his wealth of repertoire, which ranges from baroque to contemporary, and in particular for his performances of Bruckner, Brahms, Sibelius and British works. Christopher is also highly regarded for his work with younger musicians: he held the post of Course Director to the Symphony Services International Conductor Development Programme (Australia) for many years. In 2013 the University of Rochester published his first book, Inside Conducting, illustrating Christopher's wealth of experience as a conductor and a teacher. In the words of Stephen Johns, Artistic Director of the Royal College of Music: "Christopher’s book is so helpful and practical and required reading for conducting students". 

​

Christopher has recently performed with the Aspen Music Festival, Detroit, Houston, St Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Seattle symphony orchestras, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North and Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais in Brazil. He frequently visits Australia and Asia, where he has conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Queensland and West Australian symphony orchestras, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic and National Taiwan and Singapore symphony orchestras. 

 

As a recording artist he has worked with the Royal Philharmonic and the Philharmonia, and his recordings with the Rochester Philharmonic have received great critical acclaim. In 2019 he conducted the Britten Sinfonia and Guy Johnston in a recording of Howells’ Cello Concerto in the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge for Hyperion Records. He also recorded Malcolm Arnold’s Bridge on the River Kwai suite with the BBC Concert Orchestra for a television broadcast on the BBC’s ​Our Classical Century documentary in April 2019.