Guest Conductors

Jonathan Mann

Hailed by Bernard Haitink for the “infectious joy in his conducting and music making”, Jonathan Mann is in demand as both performer and music educator. He has conducted extensively internationally with recent collaborations as diverse as the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Chineke! Youth Orchestra (London) and the Arad State Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania).

Jonathan travels for projects throughout Asia and Europe. He is currently Music Director of UK based Ensemble Cambrica and Artistic Director of the Immanuel Orchestra - Music for Life Foundation in Thailand.

At the Jeunesses Musicales International Conducting Competition 2015 in Bucharest, Jonathan received the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra prize and a special jury prize leading to his Polish debut with the Kielce Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also previously selected as one of 20 finalists from 300 live auditionees to participate in the prestigious Besancon International Conducting Competition in France.

As founder and Music Director of the Cardiff Sinfonietta, Jonathan Mann oversaw the orchestra’s expansion over a 15 year period. The orchestra broadcast for the BBC and S4C and worked with soloists including Nicola Benedetti, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Benjamin Grosvenor, Sunwook Kim and Dennis O’Neill.

At the start of 2020 the Cardiff Sinfonietta merged with the Welsh Sinfonia to form Ensemble Cambrica, an exciting new orchestra aimed at reaching the community in new ways. Their first project was a series of virtual orchestra performances raising money for health workers and freelance musicians in need during the COVID-19 crisis.

Passionate about inspiring young musicians, Jonathan Mann has conducted numerous youth orchestra festivals around the world. Since 2015 he has been Artistic Director of the Immanuel Orchestra in Bangkok which is loosely modeled on the renowned Venezuelan music program ‘El Sistema’. During this time he has raised the standard of the orchestra performing symphonies by Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert. He also helps to mentor students and encourage them into higher education.

Jonathan is also a popular teacher of conducting as guest clinician for universities and conferences and teaches classes at his home and virtually. He is Artistic Director of the Cardiff International Academy of Conducting providing intensive live and virtual courses for emerging conductors and with the founding of the Thai Conductors Forum in 2019 he has started to mentor a new generation of young Thai conductors.

Jonathan Mann studied in London at the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was also Sir Charles Mackerras Junior Fellow in Conducting at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance from 2017-19. His conducting mentors are Colin Metters, George Hurst, Jac Van Steen and Bernard Haitink whom he worked with at the Lucerne Festival.

Daniel Hogan

Described by players in his Watford Youth Sinfonia as a conductor who ‘draws emotion out of each individual player’ and ‘has a similar musical maturity to much older conductors’, Daniel Hogan is a 24-year-old British conductor who is currently studying with a full scholarship for a Masters in Conducting at the Royal College of Music.

Daniel formed the Watford Youth Sinfonia when he was only 17 years old, and in the seven years since, they have performed repertoire rarely tackled by youth orchestras under his leadership, including Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’, Respighi’s ‘Roman Festivals’ and Mahler’s 9th Symphony. Daniel more recently formed the Sinfonia Perdita, a young professionals orchestra consisting of players from the London conservatoires, who are dedicated to performing masterworks neglected by the standard repertoire. Working with these groups, Daniel has collaborated with some of the country’s most exciting soloists such as Isata Kanneh-Mason and Laure Chan, as well as some of the country’s most respected living composers, including David Matthews, Joseph Horovitz and Matthew Taylor.

Daniel received a First Class Honours for his Music Degree at the University of York, where he enjoyed broadening his versatility as a conductor, being as at home in the opera pit, Music Directing Ravel’s ‘L’enfant et les Sortileges’ and Mozart’s ‘The Abduction from the Seraglio’ for the university’s Opera Society, as directing vastly complex scores by Tristan Murail and Tansy Davies for the contemporary music group ‘Chimera’.

Daniel is known as a conductor with ‘real stature, depth of knowledge, insight and understanding’, but also as one who ‘commands high levels of respect and affection from orchestral musicians of all ages and skill’. He is very popular with non-professional orchestras, having quickly been elected Music Director of the Kew Sinfonia, Chess Players and Orpington Symphony Orchestra. He also regularly deputy conducts for a long list of the area’s finest non-professional orchestras which include the Hertford Symphony Orchestra, Finchley Symphony Orchestra, St Albans Symphony Orchestra and Richmond Orchestra.

Daniel is lucky to have had a wealth of the finest mentorship available in the UK, having studied intensively with Denise Ham and Rebecca Miller, and now at the Royal College with Toby Purser, Peter Stark and Howard Williams. Daniel has also taken part in masterclasses led by Martyn Brabbins, Jac van Steen, Ben Gernon and Sir Antonio Pappano.