about mark HERON

Mark Heron ist ein schottischer Dirigent, der bekannt ist für seine dynamischen und gut einstudierten Darbietungen und sein ungewöhnlich breit gefächertes Repertoire.

Er ist der Chefdirigent des Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra, des University of Manchester Symphony Orchestra und des Liverpool Mozart Orchestra. Als Mitglied des Dirigentenkollegiums am Royal Northern College of Music arbeitet Mark regelmäßig mit sämtlichen Orchestern und Ensembles des College zusammen. Als Gastdirigent hat er mit zahlreichen professionellen Ensembles wie dem Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Meininger Hofkapelle, Pori Sinfonietta (Finnland), dem Sankt-Peterburger Festivalorchester, dem Moskauer Kammerorchester, dem schottischen Kammerorchester und Pärnu Philharmonic (Estland) gearbeitet.

Mark widmet sich jungen Musikern und arbeitet über seine Tätigkeit am RNCM hinaus mit Ensembles der Royal Academy of Music, der Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, den Konservatorien von Tilburg und Maastricht (Niederlande), dem National Youth Wind Orchestra of Israel und dem Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra zusammen.

Mark interessiert sich sehr für zeitgenössische Musik und hat Weltpremieren bedeutender Werke gegeben. Er hat mit führenden Komponisten wie Magnus Lindberg, James McMillan, Mark Anthony Turnage, Giya Kancheli, Unsuk Chin, Kalevi Aho, Detlev Glanert und vielen anderen zusammengearbeitet. 2006 dirigierte er die europäische Premiere der Oper Bandanna des amerikanischen Komponisten Daron Hagen. Bis zum heutigen Tag hat er mit dem Blasorchester des RNCM sechs CDs mit zeitgenössischem Blasorchester-Repertoire aufgenommen.

Mark hat an der RSAMD und dem RNCM studiert. Nach einer erfolgreichen Kammermusikkarriere und freiberuflicher Tätigkeit mit vielen britischen professionellen Sinfonieorchestern nahm er ein Dirigentenstudium am RNCM auf und arbeite intensiv in Meisterklassen mit Neeme & Paavo Järvi, Jorma Panula und Sir Mark Elder. 2005 erhielt Mark den ersten Preis beim Neeme-Järvi-Dirigentenwettbewerb und wurde 2006 als einer von drei jungen Dirigenten vom Londoner Sinfonieorchester für dessen Mentoring-Programm ausgewählt, das ihn mit Sir Colin Davis und dem Orchester zusammenarbeiten ließ.

Neben seinen Verpflichtungen als Dirigent lehrt Mark in den Junior Fellowship, Masters und External Studies Programmes des RNCM sowie an der Manchester University, der Canford Summer School und als Gastdozent bei der 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."