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Biography

John Traill is principal conductor of the City of Southampton Orchestra and musical director of Ensemble ISIS. Trained by Rossen Milanov at the Mt. Vitosha International Conducting Institute, John is also Director of Music at St. Anne? College and Lecturer in Music at St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford. John has also worked closely with Jonathan Sternberg, Christopher Adey, Odaline de la Martinez, Sharon Choa, and Robert Saxton.

Hailed as 'one of the most promising conductors of his generation,' John has performed internationally with orchestras that include the London Mozart Players, Orchestra of Opera North, Kharkov Philharmonic, Sofia New Symphony Orchestra, and the Moscow Studio for New Music. He won 2nd Prize at the Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition in 2006, and was a semi-finalist/prize-winner at the 8th Leeds Conducting Competition in 2005.

In 2008, John's activities include appearances on BBC Radio 3 CD Review, the release of a recording, with Edward Vandespar, for Toccata Classics, of Thomas Hyde's Autumnal, the premier of Andrew Gant's opera Don't Go Down the Elephant After Midnight at the Tete-a-Tete Opera Festival, Hammersmith, and guest appearances with the Orquestra Filharmonia Jaragua do Sul (Brazil), the London Contemporary Music Group (Cardiff), the Guersney Camerata, and the Oxford Philomusica, with soloist Mark Simpson (BBC Young Musician of the Year 2006).

John's activities in 2007 included a broadcast of Thomas Hyde's Scherzo Capriccioso on BBC Radio 3's Listen Up! series and the premiers of both Tim Benjamin's opera The Corley Conspiracy, with Radius at the Southbank Centre, and a new film score by Jean Hass for F.W. Murnau's Faust at the Barbican. In November 2007, John directed a residency at Oxford University with Sir Harrison Birtwistle and the London Sinfonietta, through his ongoing work with Ensemble ISIS.

In 2002 John founded Ensemble ISIS with Robert Saxton. In addition to establishing it as the first resident new music group at the University of Oxford, he has performed the inaugural composition workshop/concert at the 2004 Three Choirs Festival, a residency at Bowdoin College USA, and recitals at MOMA Oxford and the London Bmic concert series. In doing this, John has collaborated with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Teresa Cahill, John McCabe, James Bowman, Simon Bainbridge, Anthony Powers, Diana Burrell, Tarik O'Regan, and Elliot Schwartz.

A successful composer, in 2006 John became the second person to be awarded a DPhil in Composition from the University of Oxford. Previously he has been commissioned and performed by the Peabody Conservatoire Orchestra, Wymondham Symphony Orchestra, the Norwich Mozart Orchestra, the Oxford Philomusica, and Marios Papadopoulos. Activities in 2008 include performances of his Five Piano Miniatures, by pianist Gregory Martin, in Indiana, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Idaho, and Chicago, a new work for the London Contemporary Music Group, Little Contertino for Six (03/09/08, Cardiff), and Horn Trio (Homage a Ligeti) for new music group Radius (Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, 10/11/08)

Education

2007-2008DipLATHE (Diploma of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education), University of Oxford.
2001-2006DPhil, University of Oxford.
2000-2001MMus, Instrumental and Vocal Composition, University of East Anglia.
2001Second Diploma of Orchestral Conducting, Mt Vitosha International Conducting Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria.
1997-2000BA Hons (Music), 1st Class, University of East Anglia.
1998Diploma of Orchestral Conducting, Mt Vitosha International Conducting Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria.