Goodbye, Lionel
We’re very sorry to announce that we’re saying goodbye to Lionel Friend this month, as he steps down from his role as Music Director.
Lionel had already had a hugely successful career by the time he reached BYO, conducting operas and concert performances around the globe. He first performed with us as conductor on A Night at the Chinese Opera in 2012, followed by The Little Green Swallow in 2014. He was appointed as Music Director in December 2014 and his first conductor gig in that role (2015’s The Cunning Little Vixen) gave us one of our most memorable reviews from Mark Valencia:
“Lionel Friend brings his years of expertise to bear as he leads the Southbank Sinfonia in Jonathan Dove’s reduced orchestration. What a consistently musical conductor this former ENO staffer is. He should be frogmarched back to the Coliseum pronto.”
He also conducted 2017’s Don Giovanni, 2018’s The Rake’s Progress and 2019’s Scoring a Century. Plus, of course, he was due to conduct Les Mamelles de Tirésias this summer, before COVID struck.
Best of luck to Lionel, we’re looking forward to getting the chance to hear him conducting again soon.
Please note that we’re not looking for a new Music Director at the moment. If and when we do we’ll make a big deal about it here on the website and on our social media channels so wait until you see that before getting in touch.