LYO Staff

Boris Peck

Conductor

Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Master in Music

 

Boris Peck was born in London in 1974 and is a descendant of the composers Mikulas and Alexander Moyzes, two of the most influential figures in 20th-century music in Slovakia.

Boris began playing the violin and piano at the ages of five and eight respectively and has performed, as soloist, a number of violin concertos, including those of Sibelius and Max Bruch.

He studied music at the University of Leeds in the UK, where he also began conducting studies with the Albanian conductor, Eno Koco.  A year later Boris became conductor of the University Chamber and Symphony Orchestras, with whom he recorded the university’s first commercial CD, featuring works by Elgar, Saint-Saens and Brahms

After graduating from Leeds with a Master's degree in 1998, Boris continued his conducting studies with the Slovak conductor, Bystrik Rezucha at the Academy of Music in Bratislava, where he also worked closely with the violinist Peter Michalica.  Together they formed a chamber orchestra, Archi Posoniensis (Bratislava Strings) which they took on tour in Slovakia in a series of concerts to promote English music.  The tour was sponsored by The British Council.

Since his return to the UK, Boris has conducted the Amadeus Chorus and Orchestra in the English city of Bath and, for four years, has been a regular and prominent participant at the international conducting masterclasses given by the veteran British conductor, George Hurst.

As a freelance conductor Boris devotes much of his time to working with youth orchestras, and in 2000 he set up his own orchestra, 3n'O, to give young professional, amateur and student musicians the opportunity of performing on a regular basis under intense professional conditions.  The musicians meet on the morning of the concert, rehearse throughout the day and perform on the same evening.  All the performers give their services free of charge, and the proceeds of each concert are donated to charity.  3n’O performs two or three times a year at St Giles Cripplegate Church in London, and the performances are regularly sold out.

In October 2002 Boris recorded an all-Beethoven CD with the New Sofia Symphony Orchestra in Bulgaria.  The works performed were the Eroica Symphony and the Coriolan Overture.

In September 2003 he was invited to conduct the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in a special gala concert in Kiev celebrating the anniversary of the Ukrainian TV Channel, Studiya 1+1.  The programme consisted of Dvorak's New World Symphony and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2, with the Russian pianist, Vadim Rudenko as soloist.

 

In October 2003 Boris went to Moscow at the invitation of the Symphony Orchestra of Russia to perform the same programme in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, this time with the young Georgian pianist and graduate of the conservatoire, Shorena Tsintsabadze playing the Rachmaninov concerto.

Boris has been invited back by the Symphony Orchestra of Russia to conduct more concerts in 2005.  He will also continue his collaboration with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.

In January 2004 he made a Haydn Symphony recording with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra for Slovak Radio in Bratislava.