DSO is recruiting a new permanent conductor to succeed Julian Williamson. Details can be downloaded here.

Leigh O'Hara completed a music degree at the University of York and continued his piano studies at Trinity College of Music with Simon Young, Philip Fowke and David Owen Norris. After this he completed a Masters Degree at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has won first prize in the Weingarten Schumann Competition and has also been awarded the Gertrude Norman Prize and Cross Memorial Scholarship. His conducting teachers have included Peter Stark, Lionel Friend, Michael Rose and, at Canford Summer School, George Hurst and Rodolfo Saglimbeni.

Leigh became Director of Music at James Allen's Girls' School in 2003 and for almost 20 years has been resident at Dartington International Summer School where he has performed as soloist and chamber musician as well as coaching chamber music, teaching piano and conducting the orchestral workshop and choral rehearsals. As well as conducting the Symphony and Chamber ORchestra at JAGS Leigh is musical director of the James Allen Community Orchestra and JAGS Choral Society and has recently been appointed conductor of the first orchestra for the new South London Youth Orchestra which launched in Dulwich this summer.

Leigh has been the Musical Director of Blackheath Halls Orchestra since 2006, conducting all projects for the orchestra, including the fully staged performances of 'Carmen' and 'La Boheme' and 'Orpheus and Eurydice'. Leigh is a keen cyclist and has an irrational enthusiasm for public transport and railways but he has never been a train-spotter!

Lindsay Ryan has a Bachelor of Music (French Horn) and a Bachelor of Teaching (Honours) gained from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She also has an Associate of Music, Australia performance diploma (Horn) from the Australian Music Examinations Board. Lindsay came to London in 2006.

In 2008-9, Lindsay participated in RNCM conducting workshops with Mark Elder, Mark Heron and Timothy Reynish. Currently she studies conducting with Adrian Brown and Achim Holub. She has perfromed with the Bromley Symphony Orchestra, Orpington and Sevenoaks Orchestras, Lewisham Concert Band.

Lindsay has set up ensembles in schools, enabling young people to experience creative music-making in choirs, bands, orchestras and world music . She hasled performances by young people in the Churchill Theatre, Fairfield Halls and the O2 Arena.

Community outreach is a particular passion of Lindsay's and through successful funding from Making Music and the Mayor's Fund of Lewisham she has initiated orchestral music workshops and performance opportunities for children at primary and secondary levels, harnessing the skills and knowledge of local musicians for the next generation.

Lindsay is the founding Musical Director of Harmony Sinfonia, Conductor of the London Classical Consort of Winds, Associate Conductor of Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra. with Adrian Brown, as well as Assistant Conductor and Outreach Co-ordinator for Dulwich Symphony Orchestra .

Elizabeth McNulty recently completed her Masters in performers at Trinity College of Music, where she was awarded a Leverhulme Scholarship. She previously graduated in music from Royal Holloway, University of London. At Trinity, she studied with Gabriella Dall’Olio and had a BBC Concert Orchestra placement on the post-graduate mentorship scheme. Her previous teachers were Janice Beven and Karen Vaughan. She has also received tuition from Letizia Belmondo and has taken part in masterclasses with Sylvain Blassel, Angel Padillo, Sioned Willians and Isabelle Perrin. In 2010 - 11, she will be participating in the Foyles Future Firsts programme with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and for this she will be studying their principal harpist, Rachel Masters.

As a soloist, Elizabeth performs in recitals, concerts and events. In April 2009 she was the Soloist with ‘The Oare String Orchestra’, with whom she will perform Mozart's Flute and Harp concerto with in 2011. In 2006, she was the first prizewinner of the Beckenham Harp Festival and recently featured as soloist in the 2010 Rose Bruford College Summer Festival. Elizabeth freelances with various London based orchestras. She performs with The London Telefilmonic Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia and is principal harpist with the The Orion Symphony Orchestra and The Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, with whom she toured to Italy with last May. She has performed in concerts with Rick Wakeman, played for Royalty and performed in most of London’s major concert halls.

Elizabeth teaches harp and is currently the harp teacher at Hill House International School

Matthew Jones is violist of the Bridge Duo and the Debussy Ensemble. Recent recital and chamber music venues include the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. David’s Hall and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing; with duo partner Michael Hampton he made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2008, described by one critic as ‘some of the finest viola playing ever heard in this city’. He was also a member of the Badke String Quartet when they won the 2007 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and performs regularly with Ensemble MidtVest in Denmark .

Matthew is professor of violin, viola and chamber music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Charterhouse International Music Festival. He has recorded five CDs: two Bridge Duo recordings of English music, one of Hilary Tann’s chamber music, one of Haflidi Hallgrimsson’s chamber works and most recently a Prokofiev disc for Naxos . In February 2009 he gave the world premiere of Derek Ball’s Viola Concerto with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. He was a guest performer at the 2008 Menuhin Violin Competition and artist-in-residence at the 2008 Vale of Glamorgan Festival, and has given masterclasses in the USA , Malaysia , Australia , Japan and throughout Europe . He was recently appointed Director of the Intermediate Course in ‘Pro Corda’. Other 2009-10 highlights include concerto performances of Walton and Vaughan Williams’ ‘Suite for Viola and Orchestra’, a European tour of solo viola works and a series of recitals and masterclasses in the USA .

Swansea-born Matthew is also a composer, conductor, mathematics graduate and teacher of the Alexander Technique and Kundalini Yoga.

For more information, visit www.matt-jones.com.

Boyan Ivanov, clarinet born in 1983 in Yambol, Bulgaria, Boyan graduated from the National High School of Music Dobrin Petkov in Plovdiv, Bulgariain 2001. In 2005 Boyan completed his Bachelor studies with highest honours from the Plovdiv Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts. In 2003 he gained third prize in the International Competition for French Music Performance..

Boyan has played as a soloist and toured extensively throughout Europe and South Korea with several Bulgarian orchestras. In London Boyan has recently performed recitals at Charlton House, Blackheath Halls, Regent Hall, St James's Piccadilly, St Lawrence Church and Holy Trinity Church. In 2008/09 he studied with the Spanish virtuoso clarinettist, Joan Enric Lluna at Trinity College of Music, where he had a very successful year. Boyan gained the FTCL Recital Diploma in clarinet, was principal clarinet of the Trinity Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, and played the clarinet solo part in Bernstein's famous Prelude, Fugue and Riffs with Trinity Jazz Ensemble in a performance at Blackheath Halls. In December 2008 he participated in the Young Janacek Philharmonic under the direction of Jan Latham Koenig. Last summer Boyan was invited by Italian pianist Emilio Aversano to participate in the festival Armonie della Magna Grecia, where he made his debut on the Italian stage with two concerts in Tropea and Pizzo. He is also an active chamber music performer and is member of Inspirity Ensemble, 7/8 Ensemble and the Ivanov Wind Quintet. Currently Boyan is doing his Masters degree at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London where he studies with Julian Farrell, and he continues to study privately with Andrew Marriner.

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