Conductor
“The orchestra under conductor Toby Hession was super-responsive and the music so lush … it all underlined and powered what was playing out on the stage.”
Toby is enjoying a growing career as a conductor of a varied repertoire. He made his mainstage operatic debut in 2023 conducting performances of Carmen for Scottish Opera, and conducts performances of La Traviata in Glasgow and Aberdeen in 2024. Thie year also sees Toby make his debut at the Buxton International Festival, conducting Haydn’s La Canterina, as well as acting as assistant conductor to Adrian Kelly on Verdi’s Ernani. He has previously worked as an assistant conductor to Tim Redmond, Stuart Stratford, Dane Lam, Duncan Ward, Ben Gernon, Dominic Wheeler, Chad Kelly, Stephen Higgins, and Sian Edwards, among others. During his time at Cambridge, he conducted extensively for Cambridge University Music Society (CUMS), holding the coveted position of Conducting Scholar during his MPhil year (2018-19), and leading the Cambridge University Orchestra on a tour of Southern Poland in 2019.
He has conducted concerto repertoire with soloists including Yuanfan Yang, Jacqui Martens and the late Masayuki Tayama; he has worked in concert or rehearsal with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, The Salomon Orchestra, The Tallis Chamber Orchestra, CUMS Symphony Orchestra, CUMS Sinfonia, The London Schools Symphony Orchestra, The Commonwealth Festival Orchestra, and The Seraphin Project (as Chorus Master). He has been taught by Stuart Stratford, Dominic Wheeler, David Hill and Sian Edwards, and has conducted UK premieres of works by J.N. Hummel and Ivan Fischer, as well as numerous world premieres of student compositions at Cambridge University and Chetham’s School of Music.