A native of Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, Robert Houlihan lived in Metz, France from 1981 until 2002. There he conducted at the Municipal Theatre as well as frequent guest appearances with the l’Orchestre National de Lorraine, l’Orchestre de Chambre de Metz and his own ‘Nouvel Ensemble Instrumental’. He became a French citizen in 1988.
Robert was Principal Conductor of the Tirgu Mures Philharmonic in Romania and Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Savaria Symphony Orchestra in Hungary. His festival appearances have included the BBC Proms and the Almeida Festival, the Budapest Spring Festival, the Bartok Festival, the Amsterdam Summer Festival and the Wurzburg Mozart Festival.
He is renowned for his dedication to new music and is frequent in demand to conduct new contemporary works. His fine relationship with many of the world’s leading soloists include Maxim Vengerov, Olivier Charlier, Javier Camarena, Rebecca Olvera, Lesley Garret, Istvan Ruha, Miklos Perenyi, Patrick Gallois, Joaquin Achucarro and John O Conor. Robert has many recordings to his name including the works of several major Irish composers.
His reputation as a teacher is legendary and he is much in demand giving masterclasses around the world including most recently classes in Ireland, the UK, France, Holland, Portugal and Hungary.
Robert returned to live in his native Ireland in 2002 where alongside his European commitments he frequently works as a guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTE Concert Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.
John Longstaff read music at Girton College, Cambridge and studied conducting with George Hurst, Edward Downes and Vilem Tausky.
He came second in the 1988 Leeds Conductors Competition and since then has held full time positions at the Opera House in Kiel, Germany and with Northern Ballet. He has worked on projects with Sir Charles Mackerras, David Lloyd-Jones, John Pryce-Jones, Ivor Bolton and Richard Bonynge and is a sought-after composer, orchestrator, arranger and conducting teacher as well as playing for conducting courses with Denise Ham and Sian Edwards.
John is also Director of Music at St. Peter’s Church in Harrogate and was until 2011 Artistic Director of the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra. His children’s ballet Goldilocks and the Three Bears was shown on CBeebies television and on national tour with Northern Ballet. With English National Ballet he has conducted Nutcracker, Giselle, Swan Lake and Coppélia and in 2019 he made a new English translation of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. During lockdown his reduced orchestrations of ballet scores were played in several notable opera houses, including Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, L'Opéra National de Bordeaux and the Greek National Opera in Athens.
Recent work includes a new performing edition of Bruckner’s 3rd Symphony which he conducted with the Kernow Philharmonic Orchestra in Cornwall, a reduced orchestration of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore for English Touring Opera, and a new translation of Bach’s St. John Passion. (again with Andrew Greenan).
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