about
“What Heston Blumenthal is to food, Charles Hazlewood is to music”
Charles Hazlewood is an award-winning conductor and musical revolutionary; he is a speaker, and Artistic Director of Paraorchestra
He has conducted some of the greatest classical repertoire with some of the best orchestras in the world and is a significant presence on British television and radio.
He is the founder of the world’s first Paraorchestra and his critically-acclaimed music theatre shows tour the world; his innovations have created new audiences for orchestral music and even reset what our concept of an ‘orchestra’ is. Hazlewood is a visionary with a mission to bring the ever modern joy of orchestral music to the 21st century audience and in doing so, to change lives and communities for the better.
SMOOSH! from Paraorchestra Image: Paul Blakemore
Charles Hazlewood won first prize in the European Broadcasting Union Conducting Competition during his early twenties, and has since conducted many of the world's greatest orchestras (including The Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, The Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony). He has played Carnegie Hall, the BBC Proms, and multiple festivals throughout the world, collaborating with artists as diverse as Nigel Kennedy, Professor Green and Wyclef Jean. Charles has conducted over 200 world premieres and won the Berlin Film Festival 'Golden Bear' for Best Film with his South African township opera company's U Carmen e-Khayelitsha;
“The British Bernstein”
Under his leadership Paraorchestra became the world's first large-scale integrated ensemble of professional disabled and non-disabled musicians who made their debut at the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympics and were the first ever orchestral headliner at Glastonbury Festival. Charles has authored, presented and conducted the music in multiple films for BBC TV (on Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, amongst others, as well as The Beatles, and Badly Drawn Boy, and Minimalism); he has won three Sony Awards for his shows on BBC Radio 2, created the score for the South African Mysteries (West End and worldwide) and Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs), and a new opera The Tin Drum (both Kneehigh) and has three TED talks to his name.
“Hazlewood is a major proselytizing force in orchestral music. His energy and enthusiasm are infectious”