Rumon Gamba

Rumon Gamba (born 24 November 1972), is a British conductor. He studied music at Durham University, and then went to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied conducting with Colin Metters, George Hurst and Sir Colin Davis. He became the first conducting student to obtain the DipRAM (the Royal Academy of Music performer's diploma). He was a 1998 prize winner in the Lloyds Bank BBC Young Musicians Conductors Workshop. In 1998, he joined the BBC Philharmonic as its Assistant Conductor, and later became Associate Conductor. He left the orchestra in 2002.

Gamba was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2010. He first conducted at NorrlandsOperan in northern Sweden in a concert of English music in 2007. Subsequently, in October 2008, he was named the next chief conductor and music director of NorrlandsOperan, with an initial contract of three years, effective from the 2009–2010 season.[1][2] In March 2011, Gamba was named chief conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra,[3] and formally took up the post as of the 2011–2012 season. His initial contract is for three years.[4]

Following his house debut conducting Candide for its first production at the English National Opera[5] he returned to the company in 2011 to conduct the world premiere of Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys.[6] In 2005 he had conducted the premiere of the Brett Dean Viola Concerto in London with the composer as soloist.[7]

During the opening week of the European City of Culture festival in Umeå in January 2014, Gamba conducted a complete Beethoven symphony cycle in the Konsertsalen where each of the nine symphonies was prefaced by the premiere of a new work by a contemporary composer. Gamba commented that the aim was to do something which would "blow away cobwebs".[8][9] The concerts were all broadcast on Swedish radio.[10] Later that year he conducted Elektra in an outdoor production by Carlus Padrissa and La Fura dels Baus staged at a large business park in Umeå, Umestan Företagspark; a film was later issued on DVD.[11]

Gamba has conducted a number of recordings for the Chandos Records label, particularly in their Film Music series. With the BBC Philharmonic, Gamba has recorded works of various composers, including Miklos Rozsa, Richard Addinsell, John Addison, Malcolm Arnold,[12] Arnold Bax, Bernard Herrmann,[13] Erich Wolfgang Korngold,[14] and Ralph Vaughan Williams.[15] With the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, he has recorded music of Vincent d'Indy.[16][17] He has also recorded music of Lord Berners and Constant Lambert with the BBC Concert Orchestra.[18]

In 2006 his CD of "The Film Music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold" with the BBC Philharmonic was nominated in the Classical Crossover Album section at the 49th Grammy Awards.[19]

In 2014 he gave the Australian premiere, and a rare concert performance, of the original 1915 version of Sibelius's 5th symphony.[20]