Adam Gatehouse
Adam Gatehouse was born in London and began studying the piano at the age of four. He entered the Royal College of Music in London at the age of eleven, studying piano and clarinet. After graduating from university with a degree in Music and English, he studied conducting at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where his teachers included Sir Adrian Boult and André Previn.
In 1974 Adam was appointed Musical Director of Ballet Rambert, Britain's oldest dance company, and in the subsequent four years he conducted over six-hundred performances with them throughout Britain and abroad.
Adam made his debut in Holland in 1977 and was immediately invited to become Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Dutch National Ballet. He has conducted many of Holland's orchestras, including three of the radio orchestras with whom he has broadcast regularly.
From 1980 to 1990 Adam was Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Dutch National Youth Orchestra, which he built into one of the most prestigious youth orchestras in Europe, with highly acclaimed performances of Strauss, Bruckner, Mahler, Bartok and Stravinsky, and with whom he made many foreign tours to Italy, Greece, Spain, Belgium and Great Britain.
In 1982 Adam made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden conducting with the Royal Ballet, to which he returned in 1992, and in 1983 in New York with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1984 he made his debut in Spain, conducting five concerts in Madrid and elsewhere with the Dutch Youth Orchestra. He made his debut with the Orchestra of the City of Barcelona in May 1985 and appeared in Paris in 1986 conducting a performance of Strauss 'Ein Heldenleben'.
In September 1986 Adam conducted on the occasion of the opening of Amsterdam's new opera house. He also worked extensively in Spain (with the Orchestras of Barcelona, San Sebastian and Tenerife) and in France (with the Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris and the Orchestra of Bordeaux Aquitaine).
From 1988 to 1991 Adam was also Artistic Advisor to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
In 1990 he conducted a new production of Mozart's 'La Finta Giardiniera' in Holland, and made his debut in Canada as Guest Conductor with the Canadian National Ballet. His work has taken him to many European countries, the USA, Canada and the Far East.
In 1991 Adam returned to Great Britain to take up a post as producer, and he is now Executive Producer Live Music with BBC Radio 3. In this capacity he has worked with many of the leading artists of the time, producing concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra under such conductors as James Levine, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Mariss Jansons, Pierre Boulez and Esa Pekka Salonen. Adam is Executive Producer of the BBC Wigmore Hall Lunchtime Concerts, working with artists and ensembles such as Shura Cherkassky, the Alban Berg Quartet, Mitsuko Uchida, Itzak Perlman, the Beaux Arts Trio, Stephen Kovacevich and Ian Bostridge.
Adam's connections with Ipswich go back to when he was founder conductor of the Wolsey Orchestra, with whom he has conducted regularly since.
Adam Gatehouse was appointed Conductor of the Ipswich Orchestral Society in 2000.
Adam is Director of the Festival de Valloires - an international chamber music festival held during August in Valloires, France (only three-hours travel from London). For full details please visit: www.festival-valloires.com