Christopher Seaman

Christopher Seaman

Music Director

2009-2010 marks Music Director Christopher Seaman’s twelfth season with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. The internationally renowned, British-born conductor has become an integral part of the greater Rochester community and is recognized as having raised the artistic level of the Orchestra to its present excellence. In May 2009, the University of Rochester awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Music degree.

Recognized worldwide as one of today’s leading conductors, he previously served as Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony and of the Northern Sinfonia, and as conductor-in-residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
 
Highly sought-after as a guest conductor throughout the world and noted for his strong command of a broad repertoire, Mr. Seaman has regular engagements in North America, Israel, Eastern Europe, the Far East, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as in Great Britain. 
 
Recent guest conducting engagements in the U.S. – many of them return engagements – have included the orchestras of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Detroit, Columbus, Seattle, and Utah, as well as at Chicago’s Grant Park Festival. This fall he begins the second year of a two-year appointment as Artistic Advisor to the San Antonio Symphony. He previously has conducted the orchestras of Saint Louis, New Jersey, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Colorado, Louisville, and Atlanta. For several summers, he taught at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. 

Abroad, his schedule includes concerts with all of the London orchestras; the major United Kingdom orchestras including the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and the various BBC orchestras. He also has led the symphony orchestras of Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Trondheim, and the North German Philharmonic, among others, and will make return visits this season as well as conducting in Holland and Portugal.

He visits Australia annually, conducting the major orchestras there (often including concerts in the Sydney Opera House) and also leading master classes for young Australian conductors.
 
His recordings include performances with the Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of Britain. Mr. Seaman has recorded two CDs with the RPO, one with pianist Jon Nakamatsu released in 2001, and one with pianist Olga Kern, released in 2003 and hailed by the Democrat and Chronicle as “sensational.”