Paul Wynne Griffiths studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music and the London Opera Centre before joining the staff of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he has worked for over 30 years.

He has conducted many leading orchestras throughout the UK and abroad, including the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, RPO, LPO, Philharmonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, RSNO, London Concert Orchestra, Athens State Orchestra, Tokyo PO and Iceland SO. His opera performances include John Woolrich’s The Judgement of Paris, Rigoletto, La Boheme, Turandot, The Merry Widow, Norma and Don Giovanni for the Royal Opera; Il Trovatore for Scottish Opera; L’Elisir d’amore for Gothenborg; and Cavelleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Rigoletto, Tosca, Fidelio and Salome for the Spier Festival, South Africa. He was Artistic Director of BBC’s Pavarotti Masterclass and he is a visiting tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music and the National Opera Studio.

Music Director

Simon Over studied at the Amsterdam Conservatoire, Royal Academy of Music and Oxford University. From 1992 to 2002 Simon was a member of the music staff of Westminster Abbey, and Director of Music at both St Margaret’s Church and the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster. He is the Founder-Conductor of the Parliament Choir and has conducted all the choir’s performances in conjunction with the City of London Sinfonia, La Serenissima, The London Festival Orchestra and Southbank Sinfonia.

Simon has been Director of Southbank Sinfonia since its formation in 2002 and has conducted almost a hundred of its concerts throughout the UK and Europe in concert halls as diverse as St George’s, Windsor, St James’s Palace, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Westminster Abbey, a beer tent in Bury St Edmunds and a converted cowshed in Aberdeenshire. In 2007, he conducted Southbank Sinfonia in their first commercial recording, with the cellist Raphael Wallfisch, and conducted the orchestra in 32 performances of ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Favour’ (Tom Stoppard/André Previn) at the National Theatre. Due to the success of the show, Simon will be conducting another 41 performances in 2010.

In 2006, Simon was appointed Conductor of the Malcolm Sargent Festival Chorus and has been associated with Samling in its work with young professional singers since its inception in 1996. Simon is Artistic Director of the Anghiari Festival in Tuscany.

Recent highlights include conducting the City Chamber Orchestra (Hong Kong) and European Chamber Orchestra. He has worked with many internationally-acclaimed musicians, including Sir Thomas Allen, Emma Kirkby, Dame Felicity Lott, Alessio Bax, Malcolm Martineau, Emma Johnson, and Sir James and Lady Galway. His performances with American violinist Miriam Kramer at the Wigmore Hall London and Lincoln Center, New York – as well as on several recordings – received high critical acclaim.