The Team

The Conductor   

Andrew Penny MBE conducted our orchestra for 40 years until May 2022 when he stepped down from the role. We are now in the process of appointing his successor. Andrew’s shoes are not easy to fill, but we have had a large number of applicants due to the excellent reputation we have developed under Andrew’s leadership.

In addition to his work with the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew made over thirty recordings for the Naxos and Marco Polo labels, appearing on a further twenty compilations. Much of the repertoire is of British Music and includes symphonies by Sir Malcolm Arnold and Havergal Brian, film music by Vaughan Williams and Walton, theatre music by Sullivan and Holbrooke and light music by Coates and Arnold.

His complete cycle of the nine symphonies by Arnold was produced in time for the composer’s 80th birthday in October 2001 and became the BBC Music Magazine’s top recommendation. His recordings of eleven Shakespearian Overtures by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco were released in two volumes on Naxos in 2010.
http://www.naxos.com/person/Andrew_Penny_31809/31809.htm
He was awarded the MBE for services to music in 2014.

Something old, something new, something challenging

Many world-famous soloists and conductors have been associated with the HPO including: Janet Baker, Yehudi Menhuin, Vladimir Ashkenazy and more recently, Martin Roscoe, Peter Donohoe (winner of the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition), Tasmin Little, Nigel Kennedy, David Lloyd-Jones (founder of Opera North), Isabelle Faust, and Peter Stark (featured in the BBC TV series 'Maestro'), David Pyatt (horn), Emma Johnson (clarinet), and Samuel West (narrator for Walton's Henry V).

New talent

We have a track record of offering a platform to emerging talent and our concerts regularly feature prize-winning soloists from competitions such as BBC Young Musician of the Year and the Leeds International Piano Competition, as well as those selected by prestigious schemes such as the Young Concert Artists Trust and the BBC New Generation Artists.  These have included the pianists Chiao-Ying Chang, Sarah Beth Briggs and Ashley Wass, the guitarist Jonathan Leathwood, Lucy Wakeford (harpist), Christine Rice (mezzo soprano), and violinists Matthew Trusler, and Jana Novakova; all of whom have gone on to distinguished international careers.

In May 2014 international prize-winning pianist Alessandro Taverna received a standing ovation for his performance of the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3 with the Hull Philharmonic.