The BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW)
is one of the UK’s most versatile orchestras, with a varied range of work as both a broadcast orchestra and national symphony orchestra of Wales. The orchestra’s adventurous programming is driven by principal conductor Thomas Søndergård, principal guest conductor Xian Zhang and conductor laureate Tadaaki Otaka; the Welsh composer Huw Wat- kins is the orchestra’s composer-in-association.

Generously supported by the Arts Council of Wales, and part of BBC Wales, BBC NOW is orchestra-in-residence at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall, and performs a busy series of live concerts throughout Wales and the UK, with almost all of its performances heard on the BBC. BBC NOW appears biennially at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and annually at the BBC Proms. Autumn 2015 saw one of its most ambitious tours to date – a community residency celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia, followed by performances across South America.

The orchestra’s home is BBC Hoddinott Hall, a world-class concert hall and recording studio based in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, where BBC NOW continues its work as the UK’s foremost soundtrack orchestra.

Martyn Brabbins
was appointed music director of the English National Opera in 2016. An inspirational force in British music, Brabbins has had a busy opera career since his early days at the Kirov and more recently at La Scala, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and regularly in Lyon, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Antwerp. He is a popular figure at the BBC Proms and with many of the UK’s top orchestras, and regularly conducts top international orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Deutsches Symphonie- Orchester Berlin.

Known for his advocacy of new music and particularly of British composers, he has conducted hundreds of world premières across the globe. He has recorded over 120 CDs to date, including prizewinning discs of operas by Korngold, Birtwistle and Harvey. He was associate principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (1994–2005), principal guest conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (2009–15), chief conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra (2012– 16) and artistic director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music (2005– 07), and in 2016 was appointed visiting professor at the Royal College of Music.