about mark HERON

Mark Heron est un chef d'orchestre écossais réputé pour le dynamisme et le grand professionnalisme de ses performances, sans oublier l'inhabituelle diversité de son répertoire.
Il est directeur musical de l'orchestre philharmonique de Nottingham, de l'orchestre symphonique de l'Université de Manchester et du Liverpool Mozart Orchestra. En qualité de membre de la faculté de direction d'orchestre du Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), Mark collabore régulièrement avec tous les orchestres et ensembles musicaux de l'université. Au titre de chef d'orchestre invité, il a travaillé avec de nombreux ensembles professionnels, notamment le Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, le Pori Sinfonietta (Finlande) l'Orchestre du festival de St Petersburg, Meininger Hofkapelle, l'Orchestre de chambre de Moscou, le Scottish Chamber Orchestra et l'Orchestre philarmonique de Pärnu (Estonie).

Particulièrement motivé par le travail avec de jeunes musiciens, Mark diversifie ses activités hors du RNCM. En effet, il intervient également auprès des ensembles de la Royal Academy of Music, de la Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (RSAMD), des conservatoires de Tilburg et de Maastricht (Pays-Bas), du National Youth Wind Orchestra d'Israël et du Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

Très intéressé par la musique contemporaine, Mark a dirigé en exclusivité mondiale des représentations de nombreuses œuvres importantes. Il a collaboré avec des compositeurs prestigieux, notamment Magnus Lindberg, James McMillan, Mark Anthony Turnage, Giya Kancheli, Unsuk Chin, Kalevi Aho, Detlev Glanert et bien d'autres. En 2006, il a dirigé en exclusivité en Europe l'opéra du compositeur américain Daron Hagen, Bandanna. Il a enregistré avec l'Orchestre d'harmonie du RNCM six CD de musique contemporaine pour instruments à vent.

Mark a étudié à la RSAMD ainsi qu'au RNCM. Après une carrière accomplie dans la musique de chambre ainsi que plusieurs missions de direction de la plupart des orchestres symphoniques professionnels du Royaume-Uni, en qualité d’intervenant indépendant, il a poursuivi des études de direction d'orchestre au RNCM et a travaillé de manière intensive dans des classes de maîtres tels de Neeme et Paavo Järvi, Jorma Panula et Sir Mark Elder. En 2005, Mark a reçu le premier prix du concours de direction d'orchestre Neeme Järvi et, en 2006, il a travaillé avec Sir Colin Davis et l'Orchestre symphonique de Londres, où il était l'un des trois jeunes chefs d'orchestre sélectionnés dans le cadre du programme de mentoring.

Outre ses activités de direction d'orchestre, Mark enseigne au RNCM sous l’égide de programmes d'étude de divers cycles universitaires, ainsi qu'à l'Université de Manchester et à la Canford Summer School. De plus, il intervient en tant que professeur associé pour la Royal Air Force. 

critical reaction

"Those great contemporaries, Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen, are composers of contrasting musical ethic and aesthetic. Each pose difficult questions for any conductor and musician. Through attention to detail, and careful shaping of argument and structure, Heron and the orchestra came through the test with flying colours."

"Barber's 1st Symphony is a concert hall rarity, a piece written as one highly concentrated movement. It needs a conductor who can clarify its structure and relate the subtlety of its parts to the whole. Mark Heron certainly achieved this, particularly successful when handling the transitions between sections, as when the momentum of the opening spills over into the scherzo - which in turn tailed off into a plaintive oboe melody over rapt strings. He also imbued the ending, which comes full circle in a powerful coda, with a strong sense of inevitability."

"Sibelius's 7th symphony radiated total commitment and deep musical insight."

"Saturday’s performance [of Peter Grimes] had a powerful sense of emotional engagement with the morally ambivalent story and its cast of Suffolk townspeople. Mark Heron’s conducting was incisive and alive to the rich variety of Britten’s score. The famous ‘sea interludes’ were vividly atmospheric, ranging from the shimmering light effects of ‘Dawn’ to the elemental violence of ‘The Storm’"

"under Mark Heron's scrupulous guidance, the character [of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring] seemed balletic through and through. Negotiating an ever changing pulse with resolve, they went on to catch both the vitality of he seasonal dances and the solemnity of primitive sacrifice. Simply awesome."

"Mark Heron led a soulful and passionate performance of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. The sound of the orchestra was astonishing and the pianissimo section in the slow movement was all the more beautiful for its contrast to the relentless vigour called for by Brahms"

"...the Nottingham Philharmonic under Mark Heron seems to reach greater heights of orchestral virtuosity."

"This was surely the best of the many orchestral collaborations seen at the prestigious La Mar de Músicas festival. The brilliance of Toumani Diabate of course made this possible, but it was as much due to the Orchestra Sinfonica de la Region de Murcia directed by Mark Heron who were outstanding in their sympathetic accompaniment."

"Heron is a conductor who clearly doesn’t want to act as a dictator towards the musicians, but rather as a catalyst between them and the composer's intentions"

"...the finale [of Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5] in particular was most impressive. Transitions between tempos were imaginative and convincing, there was some wonderful phrasing, and the optimistic climax well prepared and executed."

“In Saturday's performance under Mark Heron, Shostakovich's Seventh was vindicated as a masterpiece in its own right. A singular one for sure, but full of authentic expressive riches. The emotional ambivalence that was part of the composer loomed large in this performance, starting with the casual entry of the first movement's martial subject, and ending with the tonality of the work's final chords.”

"Despite his considerable experience, Mark Heron was conducting a Bruckner symphony for the first time. A composer like no other calls for a special approach and technique, and these were supplied in full measure. Above all it was the work's monumental features which were realised so effectively, as well as an enchantment recalling Schubert or Mahler. The many hushed openings to new paragraphs – "I need to take a deep breath," said Bruckner – were beautifully played. This music seemed to come not off the printed page but out of the surrounding ether."