The selection process for our new Assistant Conductor was the toughest yest – we had 16 great applicants, we had the pleasure of interviewing 8 conductors and 4 were invited to audition. The orchestra had a great morning working with the shortlisted candidates and there was very positive feedback for all of them, It was a tough choice with four such talented young conductors!
We are delighted to announce that the new Assistant Conductor for ERSO will be Beth Fitzpatrick.
Described as “a talent to look out for”, Beth Fitzpatrick is a graduate of the Orchestral Conducting Masters at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and studied Music at the University of Oxford, (BA, MSt). She established herself as a prominent musical director in Oxford, leading productions of The Mikado (2022), Le nozze di Figaro (2023), and Don Giovanni (2024).
While based in Cardiff, she has assisted on multiple productions, including Sweeney Todd, Orphée aux Enfers and multiple Opera Scenes performances, and conducted world premieres of several symphonic and choral works. She made her London conducting debut with Ensemble Orquesta’s Don Giovanni (2025), earning a Fringe Theatre Award. She was the Female and Non-Binary Conductor Trainee at Opera North (25-26), assisting on productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Britten’s Peter Grimes, and David Fennessey’s Pass the Spoon. She also conducted the run of Opera North’s family concert series ‘Orchestra Unpacked’ and assisted the Opera North Youth Orchestra’s performance of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. She is the assistant conductor of the Alina Orchestra in Milton Keynes where she recently jumped in to conduct a performance of Max Richter’s Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons.
Future performances include Hansel and Gretel with Opera North, Puccini’s Tosca and the world premiere of Lisa Logan’s After my Breath: A Love Letter to Greta at the Grimeborn Festival, UK. She will also assist on Opera Prelude’s double bill of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Weill’s Die sieben Todsünden (Seven Deadly Sins) at Opera Holland Park in August.
ERSO 