ABOUT

---

Orlando Jopling combines a deep knowledge of orchestral and operatic repertoire with a thirst for new music and discovering new composers. He has worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the Irish Chamber Orchestra among many others, both on the concert platform and in the recording studio. 

He was principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Royal Orchestral Society for ten years. He transformed their repertoire to include twentieth and 21st century composers, introduced soloists James Gilchrist, Tim Hugh, Benjamin Grosvenor and Boris Giltburg, and brought new collaborations, semi-staging Bluebeard's Castle in Village Underground, Shoreditch with director Lila Palmer, a project with a Syrian Oud player, and Britten's War Requiem in Cadogan Hall. 

Orlando read music at Trinity College Cambridge where formative influences were the Wagner expert John Deathridge and Janáçek expert Paul Wingfield. He studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London where the principal teachers were Colin Metters, George Hurst, Colin Davis and the great Russian guru Ilya Musin.

Photo by Karolina Kuras

Orlando Jopling works as guest at the Royal Opera House and Royal Ballet, recently working on Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Giselle, Mayerling and Coppélia.

He was Associate Conductor of English National Ballet until 2020, conducting Pina Bausch's Rite of Spring (photo above at Sadler's Wells 2019), Akram Khan's Giselle, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, the Nutcracker, Prokofiev's Cinderella, Massenet's Manon, Peter Salem's Broken Wings, and many contemporary scores, at Sadler's Wells, the London Coliseum, the Albert Hall, and on tour in the UK and abroad. He worked on Études, le Corsaire, 

With a sound knowledge of French, German and Italian, he has conducted over 25 opera productions with Savoy Opera, Carl Rosa, Independent Opera, British Youth Opera and the Schönbrunn Orchestra.  

Orlando co-founded two opera companies; the contemporary opera company Tête à Tête, commissioning and conducting over a dozen chamber operas, and Stanley Hall Opera, conducting five seasons of Mozart, Verdi and Rossini.

The 2021/2022 season sees him conducting Strauss's Elektra and embark on a complete Ring cycle and a ten-year project performing all the Janáçek operas, with various semi-professional groups and ensembles.

Photo by Jason Bell of Francesca Velicu as the chosen one, English National Ballet @ Sadler's Wells, 2019

Orlando Jopling has been artistic director of the Roman River Festival for twelve years.

The festival puts world-class performers in unexpected venues including nightclubs, sailing ships under full sail, disused bus depots, care homes, derelict Victorian halls behind pubs, multi-storey carparks, supermarkets, offices, churches, schools, in pitch black darkness, and on the street. 

Anthony Marwood, Seckou Keita, Mark Padmore, Elena Urioste, Leonard Elsenbroich, Gwyneth Herbert, Tom Poster, the Sacconi Quartet, Alina Ibragimova, Maya Youssef, the Navarra Quartet, Joseph Toonga, Nicola Benedetti, Gabriel Prokofiev (above), the Britten Sinfonia and Natalie Clein have all come and experimented.

Orlando has created experimental new work in collaboration with theatre companies, dancers and choreographers, poets, school pupils, students, folk musicians, global superstars like Sinead O'Connor, and visual artists. 

Photo from Cusp Magazine

Orlando studied with Alexander Baillie, William Pleeth, and Raphael Wallfisch, and took masterclasses with David Takeno, Paul Tortelier, Stephen Isserlis and Ralph Kirschbaum. 

Chamber music has always been a central part of his life, collaborating with Anthony Marwood, Elena Urioste, Mark Padmore, Tim Ridout, Tom Poster, LSO Panufnik , Simon Blendis, the London Sinfonietta, Rebecca Gilliver, Endymion Ensemble, Lawrence Power, Piers Lane, Nika Goriç, Tim Hugh, Boris Giltburg, James Gilchrist, Benjamin Grosvenor, Rachel Roberts, Jane’s Minstrels, Guildhall Trio, the Engegård String Quartet, Chamber Domaine, and most recently Ellie Fagg, Tom Norris, Dorothea Vogel as part of the Razumovsky Quartet.

He has played as guest cellist with the great UK orchestras, mostly the LSO and the Philharmonia, working with Bernard Haitink, Mark Elder, Riccardo Muti, Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Simon Rattle and others. He still regularly plays with the LSO's contemporary ensemble as part of their Panufnik composers' programme, and he has played on over 100 sessions, recording the music to Star Wars and a host of other well-known film scores.

He has given recitals in Wigmore Hall, Cambridge, Oxford, Vienna, Israel, Italy, Bombay, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. 

In 2020 Orlando formed the Razumovsky Quartet and the Raz Club - 5 evenings of great music, food, wine and chat with the Razumovsky Quartet, between February and June 2021.

Photo by Lucy J Toms 

Orlando's music has been heard on over a hundred films, documentaries, TV series and YouTube videos.

His music for theatre includes the soundtrack to Martin Crimp The Country directed by Simon Godwin at the Tabard Theatre, and Shakespeare's Macbeth directed by Martin Wylde Central School of Music and Drama.

He has re-orchestrated operas, chamber works and other works, all listed on the composition page.

Photo of le Marche, Italy by Orlando Jopling

Over the last 15 years, Orlando has given almost 125 solo recitals in beautiful churches in remote and idyllic corners of the UK, raising funds for their upkeep. 

Orlando has travelled from the Roseland Peninsular in Cornwall to the wild Northumberland moors and abroad. The recitals have raised over £80,000 in total, and have filled under-used churches with audiences, candellight and music.

Orlando's recording of the Six Bach Cello Suites is available from January 2021.

TEACHING

Alongside his performing career he has built up a private teaching practice from home over twenty years, with pupils ranging from near beginners to post-graduate level, in both cello and conducting. 

He has given masterclasses and taught chamber music on Pro Corda, at RAM, RCM and GSMD Junior and Senior Departments, and been visiting teacher / coach at the Universität der Kunst Berlin, Keele University, Colchester Royal Grammar School and Bowdoin College (Maine). 

Photo: Still from a video shot by Orlando Jopling