Jamie Phillips is Assistant Conductor at the Hallé Orchestra, their youngest ever assistant conductor at 21 yrs old. He began his two year tenure in September 2012, at the start of the Hallé’s new season. Working with Sir Mark Elder, the Hallé’s Music Director, Jamie helps to prepare concerts, conducts Hallé concerts in Manchester and around the country, and acts as Music Director and Conductor of the Hallé Youth Orchestra.

Jamie Phillips attracted considerable attention as the youngest competitor in the 2011 Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors when he reached the semi-finals whilst still a student at the University of Manchester and Royal Northern College of Music.

In April 2012, he conducted the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra in the finals of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, resulting in an invitation to conduct the Camerata Salzburg at the 2013 Salzburg Festival.

Jamie Phillips began his musical training as a trumpet player, playing in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in 2007-09, including at the BBC Proms. He has performed concertos with the Academy Chamber Orchestra and reached the Regional Final of BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2007.

He made his conducting debut in Birmingham Town Hall in December 2008 and went on to form a chamber orchestra drawn from the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Phillips has conducted the University of Manchester Symphony Orchestra and ensembles from the Royal Northern College of Music, and is founder and principal conductor of the Birmingham Festival Orchestra with whom he gives several concerts each season.

Jamie Phillips is a committed advocate of new music, and has conducted the Vaganza New Music Ensemble, leading performances in the New Music North West Festival including works by Judith Weir, Helmut Lachenmann and Colin Matthews.

Jamie Phillips was chosen to participate in the London Sinfonietta Academy in July 2012 and, later in the month, as a conducting guest at the Tanglewood Music Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Biography by Intermusica for 2012-13 season. Not to be altered without permission.