Salomon welcomes Christopher Stark
Our concert on the 9th of February at Smith Square Hall marks Christopher’s debut with the Salomon Orchestra.
Christopher is a young conductor based in South London. He is Principal Conductor of the Multi-Story Orchestra, which he co-founded in 2011 with composer Kate Whitley. Multi-Story’s concerts in a Peckham Car Park were recognised with a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2016. In the same year, Christopher made a critically acclaimed BBC Proms debut with the Orchestra, leading to reinvitations for 2017, when they performed John Adams’ Harmonielehre, and in 2019.
Away from Multi-Story, Christopher works mainly in opera and as an Assistant Conductor. Whilst at the University of Cambridge he conducted Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Albert Herring with the Cambridge University Opera Society. Since graduating, he has worked extensively on the music staff of Glyndebourne Festival and Tour as Assistant Conductor, and, in 2014, was awarded the Lefever Study Award by the company for his work on The Turn of the Screw. He had also worked as an Assistant Conductor for the BBC Proms, Aurora Orchestra, The Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, Oper Köln, Garsington, Gürzenich-Orchester and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
If you would like to play with the Salomon Orchestra, then please
email admin@salomonorchestra.org with your details and experience.
We are always keen to find new players.
Christopher began his musical life as a cellist and pianist, playing in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He then turned to conducting orchestras and operas while a Choral Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he received an MA in Music and Musicology and a MusB in Piano Accompaniment.
His interest in contemporary music is evident in his conducting. For Multi-Story he has conducted the works of John Adams, Gerard Grisey, Louis Andriessen, and Terry Riley, and world premieres of works by Kate Whitley, Dani Howard, Matt Rogers, William Marsey, and Emma-Ruth Richards. Christopher has also recorded for the NMC label and, in 2018, conducted the BBC Inspire composers competition winners with the Aurora Orchestra for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Community and amateur music-making is at the core of his work with the Multi-Story Orchestra and as principal conductor of Blackheath Halls Orchestra and the Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra.
Christopher studied conducting with Peter Stark, Jorma Panula and Stephen Layton.