Principal Conductor
John Traill is the principal conductor of the City of Southampton Orchestra and musical director of Ensemble ISIS and the Sounds Underground Ensemble. Trained by Rossen Milanov through the Mt. Vitosha International Conducting Institute, he has also worked with Christopher Adey, Jonathan Sternberg, and Sharon Choa. John is Director of Music at St. Anne's College, and a Lecturer in Music at St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil (Oxon.), two conducting diplomas, an MMus and 1st Class BA (Hons).
Awarded the William L. Montague 2nd Prize at the 2006 Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition and a prize-winner at the 8th Leeds Conductors Competition 2005, John has had international success. Orchestras he has conducted include the London Mozart Players, Orchestra of Opera North, Oxford Philomusica, Moscow Studio for New Music, Wolsey Symphony Orchestra, Waveney Sinfonia, New Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria), Kharkov Philharmonic (Ukraine), and CHU Rouen Choir and Orchestra.
Previously, John has been principal conductor of the Norwich Mozart Orchestra, the Oxford University Philharmonia and Sinfonietta, Claxton Opera, and in 2002 he co-founded the new music project Ensemble ISIS with Robert Saxton; performing at the inaugural composition workshop-concert at the 2004 Three Choirs Festival, a residency at Bowdoin College USA, the London Bmic concert series, and conducting workshops with artists that include Teresa Cahill, James Bowman, Simon Bainbridge, Anthony Powers, Diana Burrell, Tarik O'regan, and Elliot Schwartz.
John is also an established composer and has had premiers in England, France and the USA, most notably 3 Interludes and Postlude for Bruckner Symphony No.7 written for Ben Loeb and the Peabody Conservatoire Orchestra (2001). Recent projects include a cadenza to Mozart's Piano Concerto K.503 for Marios Papadopoulis and the Oxford Philomusica, and completing Four Songs for Soprano and Orchestra.