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 hisstudies 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.

Shulah Oliver completed her Masters Degree in Performance with Distinction at the Royal Academy of Music in September 2006, having studied violin with Howard Davis. She was awarded the Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music for her outstanding Final Recital. She has a passion for introducing audiences to the works of lesser-known British composers and performing their works with the hope of keeping their music alive and a part of our musical heritage.

As a member of orchestras including the National Youth Orchestra, she has performed at a variety of prestigious events and venues including Cheltenham International Festival, BBC Proms, Young Euro Classic, the South Bank, Concertgebouw and Royal Albert Hall and with prominent conductors such as Yan Pascal Tortelier, Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Colin Davis and Sir Charles Mackerras.

Bethan Morgan was born in South Wales in 1978, and began her musical studies at the age of seven. In 1996 Bethan gained a place at Birmingham Conservatoire where she studied violin with Philippe Graffin and Peter Thomas. It was at the Birmingham Conservatoire Bethan began her baroque studies with Diane Terry and Micaela Comberti. She gave several concerts with the Conservatoire's Capelle Baroque Orchestra with guests such as Nicholas Kraemer and Jeffrey Skidmore. Bethan has gone on to enjoy success with various period instrument ensembles including Ex Cathedra, The Kings Consort, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Hanover Band.

She is still a regular performer on modern violin and has performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Shakespeare Company and live concerts with various bands such as Il Divo, Smokey Robinson and Barry Manilow.

Richard Laing has established a reputation as one of the most exciting and versatile conductors in Britain today, and has conducted extensively in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.  Awarded the sinfonia ViVA Conducting Scholarship in 2001 he has a continuing relationship with the orchestra, conducting them in concerts across the UK.  Richard is Music Director of the Birmingham-based opera company Operamus, Music Director of The Midlands Sinfonia, Nottingham Harmonic Society, Lancashire Youth Symphony Orchestra, Leicester Bach Choir and the Midlands Chorale; Artistic Director of the Leamington Chamber Orchestra; Associate Conductor of the virtuoso young ensemble Sinfonia Cymru, Associate Conductor of Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra in London, and a frequent guest conductor with Queen’s Park Sinfonia, Hallam Sinfonia, Sinfonia of Birmingham, and the Chandos Symphony Orchestra.  Richard is a conductor and coach in the Department of Vocal and Operatic Studies and on the Orchestral Programme at Birmingham Conservatoire where he works with Lionel Friend and Stephen Barlow.

Richard’s operatic work has included Albert Herring, Hansel and Gretel and Noye’s Fludde (Operamus), La Traviata and La Bohème (Dartington Festival Opera), The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, and Malcolm Williamson’s English Eccentrics (Birmingham Conservatoire), Adrian Cruft’s Dr Syn (Kent Opera) and Handel’s Orlando (Pigotts).  He has accompanied many distinguished artists including principal players from the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Dresden Staatskapelle, Amsterdam Baroque, Munich Philharmonic, CBSO, RLPO and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, as well as Brigitte Engerer, Emily Pailthorpe, Anthony Halstead, Leonard Schreiber, Robert Hayward, Neil Jenkins, Peter Wedd, John Turner, Alan Hacker, Joanne Lunn, Adrian Bradbury and David LePage.  He has premiered dozens of new works including Paul Patterson’s recent Phoenix Concerto, and is in demand as an adjudicator and coach at festivals and summer schools and as a leader of orchestral and choral workshops around the UK.  Richard has given several performances with Radio 1 DJ Bobby Friction, who has hailed him as “the Iggy Pop of classical music.”  Future engagements include preparing the chorus for the Hallé’s performance of Alexander Nevsky.

Richard gained his Master's Degree from Birmingham Conservatoire after nine months of study, along with a postgraduate diploma in conducting and the Conservatoire's Postgraduate Prize for the most outstanding contribution to the musical life of the college.  Subsequently he was supported by the Foyle Foundation to work intensively on operatic conducting at Dartington with Diego Masson.

Richard studied violin at the University of Illinois and the RNCM, and plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Orchestra of the Swan, Southern Sinfonia, the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra da Camera, and as a guest leader for Queen’s Park Sinfonia, Sinfonia of Birmingham, Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra and Chandos Symphony Orchestra.

In his limited spare time Richard pursues a wide range of academic interests: his undergraduate work in Manchester on John F. Kennedy’s policy in Vietnam won him the Kaiser Award for American History, and he has presented papers on subjects as diverse as Hollywood film, reality TV and the Ring cycle at the International Conferences on Film and Literature at Florida State University and the International Wagner Symposium at the University of Adelaide.  Among his proudest achievements are being appointed Vice President of the University of Illinois Triathlon Club and having articles published in the iconic games magazine White Dwarf.  Richard is married to the singer and psychologist Karen Wise; they are currently celebrating the recent birth of their first child, Elsa.