Michael Lloyd studied music at the University of East Anglia and at the Royal College of Music, London. He joined Scottish Ballet as company pianist in 1972 and there began his conducting career. In 1976 he moved to Kassel in Germany, where he conducted both opera and ballet, and then to Stuttgart, where he continued to conduct opera. At the same time he worked as Associate Chorus Master for three choruses, including the South German Radio Chorus. He also performed as a continuo player with the Ludwigsburg Festival Orchestra, including a Far East tour, and a recording of Judas Maccabeus with Peter Schreier. In 1985 he joined English National Opera, making his conducting debut in 1986 with Madam Butterfly. He conducted an extensive repertoire for the Company, including new productions of Donizetti’s Elixir of Love and Verdi’s Nabucco, the European première of Philip Glass’s The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 and Britten’s Turn of the Screw on ENO’s highly successful tour of the USSR in 1990. In 1989 he was appointed Assistant Music Director, and in 1998 Senior Resident Conductor.

In 1994 Michael became Musical Director of the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he has conducted a wide range of the major symphonic repertoire, including Mahler and Shostakovich symphonies, Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben and Elgar symphonies. Since 1998 he has also been Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Chandos Symphony Orchestra, Malvern.Michael Lloyd has been a regular visitor to New Zealand since making his debut there in 1994 with Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera for Wellington City Opera. This was followed by Rigoletto and Don Giovanni for the same company, and Otello for the newly named National Opera Wellington in the refurbished St. James Theatre. He conducted two performances of Britten’s War Requiem with the National Youth Choir and the Auckland Philharmonia and several concerts with the Dunedin Sinfonia. Since 1996 he has conducted the final concert of New Zealand’s prestigious biennial young singers’ competition, the Mobil SongQuest and plans to return for the same event in 2005.In August 2001 Matz Skoog, then director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, asked Michael Lloyd to conduct a Gala Programme in Wellington and Auckland. Matz Skoog became director of English National Ballet later that year, and has since invited Michael to conduct Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Cinderella.In summer 2003 Michael Lloyd conducted Puccini’s Tosca in Singapore, and made his debut with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He was invited to return to Bournemouth at Christmas and again for July and August 2004, and meanwhile has also returned to ENO for Bizet’s Carmen.

Byron Parish started to play the violin aged 6 following a visit to his school by a peripatetic teacher. He continued his studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and graduated in 1993. He then spent 5 years as a freelance musician, including work with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Welsh National Opera and D’Oyly Carte Opera, also playing chamber music and appearing as soloist. Highlights during this time include playing with the Birmingham Ensemble, performing Bartok’s 2nd Concerto with the Birmingham Philharmonic, and touring with Meatloaf ! He joined the CBSO in 1998, and appears regularly in their critically acclaimed Centre Stage lunchtime series, most recently in Messien’s Quartet for the End of Time. He has also continued to perform as soloist, having played Bach concertos and the Beethoven Triple with the Sinfonia of Birmingham, and the Beethoven Concerto with the BPO.He plays a fine violin by Vincenzo Panorno, kindly loaned to him by the CBSO's orchestral endowment fund.

Michael Seal was born in London in 1970. He started learning the violin at the age of 9, going on to study at the Birmingham Conservatoire and joining the CBSO in September 1992. It was whilst studying at the Birmingham Conservatoire that Michael first started conducting, learning with Jonathan Del Mar.

In 1996, he conducted his first concert with the Birmingham Philharmonic in Walsall. Since then performances have included Shostakovich Symphonies 7 and 10. Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique and Walton Symphony No.1. In May 2005, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra announced it was to appoint Michael Seal as its Assistant Conductor, the first in its history. During his first year Michael conducted two family concerts, a schools concert, a matinée concert, a concert featuring the music of Mohammed Rafi and performances in Aldeburgh and Wolverhampton

Recent engagements include a series with the BPO in 2007, concerts in Sutton Coldfield and Milton Keynes with the CBSO, and his first subscription concert with the CBSO in March 2007. Michael continues to conduct the Sinfonia of Birmingham, and made his debut with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in June 2007.