Conductor
Michael Bell was born in Neath, South Wales, and studied music at Cardiff University.
In 1982 Michael formed Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra. In June 2027 he will celebrate 45 years conducting the orchestra.
Michael has conducted an enormous and wide ranging repertoire including symphonies by Mahler, Richard Strauss, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Vaughan Williams, Elgar and Shostakovich, as well as major orchestral works by Stravinsky, Ravel and Prokofiev, and many more besides.
Michael has always had a great enthusiasm for film music, and in 1994 introduced ‘A Night at the Movies’ as an annual feature of CPO’s repertoire. Hundreds of scores performed have ranged from Max Steiner’s 1933 score for King Kong, to Ben-Hur, Star Wars and Spiderman, many of which have been Welsh premiere performances.
In 2010 Michael was invited to conduct Brecknock Sinfonia in its annual concert series at Brecon Cathedral and has since been the orchestra’s regular conductor.
In 2021 Michael was appointed Music Director of the Abergavenny Symphony Orchestra and fulfils the same role with Hereford Symphony Orchestra.
Michael conducted the first ever concert performance of Sir Arthur Bliss’s ballet Checkmate in 1985; the UK Premiere in 2013 of Lorin Maazel’s The Ring Without Words (the great orchestral sections of Wagner’s Ring Cycle sown into a colossal tone poem); the world premiere in 2016 of Mr Dahl that featured Welsh icon Michael Sheen, and in 2019 the Welsh Premiere of Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2.
In the 2018 New Year’s Honours Michael was appointed an MBE at an investiture at Buckingham Palace.