He has also begun a series of recordings for Hyperion Records of Belgian Romantic works, the first of which – works by Mortelmans – has been warmly received internationally.

Artistic Director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music 2005-2007, he was Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 1994-2005. After studying composition in London and then conducting with Ilya Musin in Leningrad, his career was launched when he won first prize at the 1988 Leeds Conductors' Competition. Since then Brabbins has regularly conducted all the major UK orchestras and is much sought-after in Europe, notably in Germany, Holland, Belgium and Scandinavia.

In 2009/10 Brabbins focuses on opera, opening the season with Wozzeck at the Flemish Opera, conducting the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in a new music-theatre work by David Sawer and directed by Richard Jones at Glasgow’s Tramway and the Huddersfield Festival; celebrating Peter Maxwell Davies’ 75th birthday with the BBC Scottish Symphony in performing his opera ” Tavener”; and giving the world premiere of a new work by Raskatov “A Dog’s Heart” (directed by Simon McBurney) at the Netherlands Opera/Holland Festival, where he is a regular visitor. He also returns to Hamburg Opera to conduct Death in Venice, following a spectacular success with the same work at the Opera de Lyon last May (his debut in the house). Since his early days conducting Mozart at the Kirov, Brabbins has also conducted for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, English National Opera and Opera North, and is a regular visitor at the Frankfurt Opera where he returns in 2010.

Last season Brabbins’ symphonic engagements included appearances at the South Bank in subcription with the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia orchestras; his Tokyo debut, with the Tokyo Metropolitan (where he returns in 2011); and visits to the Netherlands Radio Chamber in the prestigious Matinee series, the Residentie Orkest, Salzburg Mozarteumorchester and Lahti Symphony. He is a regular guest with the City of Birmingham Symphony, Halle and BBC Philharmonic orchestras, and appears several times each season with the BBC Symphony and BBC Scottish Symphony orchestras in subscription and at the BBC Proms.

Known for his Elgar, Britten, and Walton, Brabbins also has a strong affinity for the great 19th century Romantics, and for the Russian and French repertoire. Brabbins is also one of Europe’s leading interpreters of contemporary music. Conductor of choice for the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, from 1999-2004 he was the Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today Series Conductor. He has also conducted the Bavarian Radio Symphony in their Musica Viva series 9 times and returns this season to the Deutsche Sinfonieorchester in the Ultraschall festival.

Brabbins is much in demand as a recording artist. He has recorded over 30 discs with the BBC Scottish Symphony on Hyperion, with core repertoire planned for future recordings; and has an ongoing relationship also with Chandos Records. He has recorded Birtwistle, David Bedford and Finnissy for NMC; Rachmaninov and Scriabin for Collins Classics and made a notable live recording of Britten's War Requiem for Naxos. His recording of Korngold's Die Kathrin with the BBC Concert Orchestra for CPO won the Opera Award at Cannes.

Martyn Brabbins is represented by Intermusica.

November 2009 / 586 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please contact us if this biography is out of date.

Selected discography

For further details, please refer to the full discography

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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Britten, Poulenc and Elgar
“Martyn Brabbins conducted the BBC SSO (this year’s orchestra in residence) and the St Magnus Festival Chorus in the premiere, in a programme that opened with Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and closed with Elgar’s Enigma Variations, performances which showed an orchestra on fine form and a conductor with a stylish and sympathetic affinity for the music”
The Herald Scotland, June 2010

Netherlands Opera / Raskatov A Dog’s Heart
"The production by the English director Simon McBurney, in his first foray into opera, ingeniously captures the opera’s spirit...Martyn Brabbins leads an assured performance."
The New York Times, June 2010

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group / David Sawer Rumpelstiltskin
“From the ever-darkening timbre of the alchemy music to the expansive horn solo, the brittle, syncopated wedding music, mocking flute and stuttering speech-rhythms, Sawer tightens his score with unerring focus and is handsomely served by BCMG's virtuosic instrumentalists and conductor Martyn Brabbins.“
The Independent, November 2009

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Sir Peter Maxwell Davies Taverner
“With the exemplary Martyn Brabbins conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the ending of the first half was as shattering as it should have been. The distant murmur of instrumental tone at the close of the opera will stick no less indelibly in the memory."
The Herald, November 2009

“I was blown away by its emotive power. Martyn Brabbins engineered a performance that held us rapt from its declamatory start to a hauntingly moving ending, where a snatch of Taverner's own music fades into oblivion.“
The Scotsman, November 2009

Royal Flemish Philharmonic / Lodewijk Mortelmans Homerische symfonie; Morgenstemming; Mythe der lente
“This CD marks a new departure for Hyperion, starting their link with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic under their relatively new principal guest conductor but old Hyperion hand Martyn Brabbins. This is a fine orchestra, capable of silky smooth string playing where necessary, and excellent in all departments. Brabbins steers a clear path avoiding the mundane on the one hand, and the over-egged romantic hysteria on the other, and his orchestra, from the end result, seem to me to have enjoyed the music making hugely. These are no idle run-throughs – ensemble is tight, dynamics are carefully graded and the result is some intense music-making…. This release is the first of a series, further issues in which I look forward to immensely.”
Audiophile Audition, October 2009

Flemish Opera / Berg Wozzeck
“As remarkable as the sublime acting of the soli is the collaboration between Joosten and conductor Martyn Brabbins. The timing and the way they put together in the most logical way the contradictions between the people’s language and Hochdeutsch and between Bergs atonal music and folksong is spot on… The soli sing in beautiful synchronization with the musicians from the Flanders Opera Symphonic Orchestra. The Brit Brabbins makes with this Wozzeck his debut at Flanders Opera. He’s just been appointed as regular guest conductor at the Filharmonie. If this performance of the Flanders Opera Symphonic Orchestra is exemplary of his work, then there are some exciting times ahead in Antwerp.”
De Volkskrant, 5 stars, September 2009

“Alban Berg warned his conductors that they should not lose themselves in the score (one of the most worked through in history) but that they should serve the ‘idea’. Martyn Brabbins and the orchestra succeed in that pretty well. He feels the dramatic rythmes of Berg very well and balances the volumes powerfully without becoming demonstrative.”
De Morgen, September 2009

“Leading an orchestra in perfect shape, Martyn Brabbins gives the score a reading that is more exciting than natural, amazingly intimate and gives a perspective to the extraordinary beauty of the orchestral score without becoming too heavy or ostentatious.”
La Libre Belgique, September 2009

“The musical approach is also driven, powerful and loud. Conductor Martyn Brabbins hardly gives the orchestra time to relax. In his hands this opera, lasting less than 100 minutes, becomes scorchingly intense.”
De Standaard, September 2009

Opera de Lyon / Britten Death in Venice
“Death in Venice, Benjamin Britten's final opera, is one of the composer's least-performed works; productions in France have been especially rare… the Aldeburgh Festival under the direction of Yoshi Oida and the baton of Martyn Brabbins, was one of the highlights of the French season.”
Opera News Online, July 2009

"In the pit the Lyon Opera Orchestra (in small formation) is perfect: Martyn Brabbins, a British conductor unknown in France, conducts with perfect precision, emphasising the "abstract" nature of the score, influenced by Berg (one of Britten's musical inspirations), and keeping up the tension throughout the performance."
Le Monde, May 2009

London Philharmonic Orchestra / Britten, Sibelius & Elgar
“Britten's ‘Four Sea Interludes’ from Peter Grimes, with their edgy high lines and sonorous depths, might have been composed for the improved acoustic of the Royal Festival Hall, in any case – their vividness enhanced on this occasion by Brabbins pressing on from Interlude to Interlude without pause, as Britten asked. Rarely can the heavy brass in ‘Dawn’ have sounded more menacing, the bells in ‘Sunday Morning’ more clangourous, the reflections in ‘Moonlight’ more incisive, the screaming strings in ‘Storm’ more fearsome.

A number of rarely noticed details of colour and dynamics in Elgar's [Enigma Variations] ever-shifting scoring were pointed and the penultimate variation, with its vision of a great ship passing, was memorable. A full RFH yet again, and much enthusiasm.”
The Independent, 29 January 2009

“The hushed opening of the Enigma Variations seemed inspired… Bow barely moved over string at the start of Nimrod. And Brabbins skillfully balanced detail and impetus in such a way as to bring a sense of powerful cumulative energy to the work as a whole.”
The Times, 23 January 2009

London Sinfonietta / Takemitsu & Larcher
“Both pieces… were played with exquisite care and affection by the Sinfonietta under Martyn Brabbins's direction.”
Daily Telegraph, 3 October 2008

BBC Symphony Orchestra / BBC Proms / Vaughan-Williams & Holst
“Martyn Brabbins conducted the BBC Symphony in the English parts of the concert, which was dedicated to the memory of Vernon Handley, whose death had been announced earlier that day. Both the Sinfonia Antartica and The Planets were works that Handley conducted superlatively, and Brabbins' performance of the Holst especially - wonderfully fleet and colourful, its array of European influences gleefully paraded - had the same memorable quality. The Vaughan Williams remains… an uneasy mix of site-specific illustrative music and symphonic rigour, though here its instrumental palette positively glowed.”
The Guardian, 13 September 2008

“Brabbins and the orchestra gave the freshest of performances, full of keen detail and felicitous colouration. His blistering tempo for "Mars" was as good a sign as any of life on the red planet.”
The Independent, 12 September 2008

“Brabbins delivered an exceptional performance that proved once again what a modernist phenomenon this score of the First World War years was. After an implacable, explosive Mars, Venus was more full-toned, more sensual than ever.”
Evening Standard, 12 September 2008

Norrköping Symphony Orchestra / John Pickhard The Flight of Icarus, The Spindle of Necessity, Channel Firing (BIS)
“British conductor Martyn Brabbins has this music under his skin… This one is essential listening for lovers of modern music.”
Fanfare, July/August 2008

"The Norrköpinger Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, showed itself at its best, and translated Pickard's scores into technically outstanding and gripping, needle-sharp soundworlds. The resulting intensity, coming from a total dedication to the task, is tangible and audible every second. The music doesn't come across as heavy, but keeps a natural transparence, which is enhanced by the exemplary recording quality."
Klassik.com, May 2008

BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Dvorák & Bartók
“The BBCNOW musicians were in top form, and their playing was all the more vivid for Brabbins' contrasting of the mischievous humour of the second and fourth movements with the elegiac outpouring at the heart of the piece.”
The Guardian, January 2008

BBC Symphony Orchestra / Judith Weir Weekend at the Barbican Centre
"… Martyn Brabbins' conducting superbly illuminated the work's sensuous, yet strangely threatening, sound world."
The Guardian, January 2008

"…Michael Finnissey's tone poem Red Earth, a brilliant piece of 1980s Modernism… gave Sunday's closing concert its focus, in a superbly coralled rendition under Martyn Brabbins."
The Financial Times, January 2008

"… The Vanishing Bridegroom… was given an atmospheric concert performance on Saturday under Martyn Brabbins's direction."
The Times, January 2008

"The BBC Symphony Orchestra negotiated its way deftly through the ambiguities of Weir's tantalisingly suggestive score under the assured baton of Martyn Brabbins."
The Evening Standard, January 2008

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, BBC Symphony Orchestra / David Sawer From Morning to Midnight (NMC)
"Along with the half-hour suite from his Coliseum opera, the disc includes The Memory of Water, for strings, the orchestral, Bentham-inspired "the greatest happiness principle", and the surreally brilliant ensemble piece Tiroirs."
The Times, December 2007

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / BBC Proms 2007
"…the performance [of Harrison's Panic] under Brabbins was wonderfully precise."
The Guardian, August 2007

London Sinfonietta / György Ligeti Aventures & Nouvelles Aventures
"Martyn Brabbins's conducting generated its own electricity. Performers froze to the end of his finger, awaiting the tiny beat that would set off a plink, a howl, or the crockery's demise."
The Times, May 2007

"The blue-gowned orchestra is superbly conducted by Martyn Brabbins."
The Guardian, May 2007

Oper Frankfurt / Bloch Macbeth (prod. Keith Warner)
"Unter seiner Leitung schaerfte das gut disponierte Frankfurter Museumsorchester nicht allein die oft schroffen Konturen des Werks, sondern entlockte ihm auch die reichen, fast impressionistischen Farbwerte und das differenzierte Panorama der Instrumentallinien."

"Under (Brabbins') direction the A team Frankfurt Museumsorchester not only brought into focus the often jagged contours of the work, but also seduced us with the rich, almost impressionistic colours and the varied panorama of the instrumental writing."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 2007

"Dirigent Martyn Brabbins aber hatte das Ensemble hervorragend mit den Anforderungen dieser Hochkomplizierten Musik vertraut gemacht und erreichte ein Hoechstmass an Spannung und Konturenschaerfe."

"However, conductor Martyn Brabbins was outstanding in his ability to familiarise the orchestra with this demanding and highly complicated music, and achieved a high level of excitement and clarity of line."
Frankfurter Neue Presse, January 2007

Philharmonia Orchestra / Queen Elizabeth Hall / Elgar, Walton & Hellawell
"…the pièces de résistance were the two Elgar "overtures" (really symphonic poems) that framed this all-English programme. Martyn Brabbins and the Philharmonia gave In the South and Cockaigne the sort of glamorous sound and sweep that augurs well for their tour to Mexico next week."
Financial Times, October 2006

BBC Proms
"...spine-tinglingly visceral..."
The Guardian, July 2006

Cheltenham Festival
"The concert began appropriately with Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave overture, and ended with an account of Mahler's uncaledonian fourth symphony that I found deeply affecting."
The Sunday Times, July 2006

Het Residentie Orkest / Amsterdam Concertgebouw / Shostakovich One Act Operas
"Het stuk werd, net als de andere fraai door het Residentie Orkest gespeeld. Vor dirigent Brabbins heeft Sjostakovitsj kennelijk wenig geheimen."

"…beautifully played by the Residentie Orchestra. Shostakovich evidently holds few secrets for conductor Brabbins."
Parool, June 2006

Philharmonia / Stravinsky The Rake's Progress
"It was also the best played, with exquisite work from the Philharmonia under Martyn Brabbins."
Anna Picard, The Independent, June 2006

"Neil Bartlett's new production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress is an effervescent curtain-raiser to this year's Aldeburgh festival. It's the first time Bartlett has directed an opera. But with a cast of young soloists - all graduates of Aldeburgh's Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme - and the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins, this is a staging full of wit, energy and expressive intensity....

...it's the brilliance of Stravinsky's music, and the pacing and insight of Brabbins's conducting, that make this evening so rewarding."
Tom Service, The Guardian, June 2006

"Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress was mounted at Snape Maltings by soloists from the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, a chorus from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Philharmonia Orchestra, crisply conducted by Martyn Brabbins."
Paul Driver, The Times, June 2006

BBC SSO, National Youth Choir of Scotland / Hellawell, Bernstein, Debussy and Bartók
"...a power-packed performance of the Bartók."
The Scotsman, April 2006

"...the SSO was in mindblowing form for Piers Hellawell's excitingly hectic Dogs and Wolves (a first performance), ravishingly hypnotic in Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune, and ... ultimately incandescent and super-articulate in the finale of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra."
The Herald, April 2006

BBC Symphony Orchestra / Bennett
"Brabbins and his responsive orchestra gave us a performance of much sighing beauty."
The Times, April 2006

Philharmonia Orchestra / Britten, Holst, Elgar and Tchaikovsky
"…the sound of Martyn Brabbin's performance never seemed saturated or lacking in spaciousness. The internal detail the close focus revealed was an added bonus."

"That spotlight on instrumental detail suited the ballet music from Holst's otherwise forgotten opera The Perfect Fool, extrovertly delivered by Brabbins, and especially the multitude of woodwind contributions in his equally well characterised account of the Enigma Variations. This reinforced an admiration for the expert musicianship of the Philharmonia's principles, as well as for the imaginative doublings in Elgar's textures."
The Guardian, October 2005

Cheltenham Festival
"He is surely destined to change musical life in more than Cheltenham."
The Times, July 2005

"It is not just that he is exceptionally versatile…it is also a mature personality."
The Financial Times, June 2005

"The appointment…shows that his breadth of experience has finally come into focus."
The Financial Times, June 2005

Hallé Orchestra / Ravel Mother Goose, Holst The Perfect Fool
“The darkest of the score’s three incarnations, it became, in Brabbins’s hands a very adult work, shot through with premonitions of lost innocence and adolescent sexuality… Thrilling, polyrhythmic stuff, [The Perfect Fool] was given a hair-raising performance by Brabbins that left you wondering why it is played so infrequently and why so few choreographers are drawn to it.”
The Guardian, February 2005

English National Opera / Tippett A Child of our Time
Martyn Brabbins’s account of the score is grippingly urgent and muscular; the singing of the ENO chorus, so central to the work, is full-blooded, and the four soloists…first-rate too.”

“…conductor Martyn Brabbins drew impassioned playing from the orchestra.”
The Daily Telegraph, January 2005

"The spirituals…are, harmonically speaking, the richest moments in a spare and soulful musical landscape, one that is wonderfully served by the conductor, Martyn Brabbins, ENO’s excellent chorus and the heartfelt soloists…”
The Independent , January 2005

“Martyn Brabbins conducts with appropriate soulfulness and clarity – the Romantic lines of the opening and dark colours of deep strings and brass are particularly well done, and there is a fine set of soloists…”
The Times, January 2005

“The unfazeable ENO chorus met all challenges heroically and the orchestra and soloists, under Martyn Brabbins’s expert baton, gave quality performances.”
The Evening Standard, January 2005

BBCSymphony Orchestra / Birtwistle The Second Mrs Kong
“…This contains some of his most hypnotically beautiful writing, at least when the huge forces are controlled with as much flair as Martyn Brabbins displayed here…”
The Times , November 2004

“…Brabbins’s performance reaffirmed this as one of the great operatic achievements of our time.”
The Guardian , November 2004

“Martyn Brabbins conducted the BBC Symphony in it to great effect."
The Financial Times , November 2004

“Brabbins at the BBCSO persuasively displayed the strange, glinting colours of this mesmerising score…"
The Evening Standard , November 2004

“…The BBC Symphony and tremendous soloists [gave] it their all under Martyn Brabbins…”
The Observer, November 2004

“The performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Apollo Voices, the conductor Martyn Brabbins, and cast…could hardly be faulted.”
The Sunday Times, November 2004

“[The Second Mrs Kong] received a superb semi-staged London premiere this week from the BBC Symphony Orchestra – back on tip-top form under Martyn Brabbins…”
The Independent on Sunday , November 2004

Ensemble Moderne / Birtwistle Theseus Game / Deutsche Grammophon
“…the performance concludes an essential disc for all devotees of the composer’s muscular, energising music.”
The Daily Telegraph , September 2004

“Compelling listening; vintage Birtwistle.”
The Financial Times , August 2004

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Elgar-Payne 3rd Symphony
“…Brabbins manipulated its conflicting moods – muscular lyricism in the opening movement, sombre self-communing in the adagio, swaggering ceremonial in the finale – with consummate assurance.”
The Guardian , July 2004

“Elgar would surely have been delighted with the completed work and last night’s robust, passionate, mellow sounding, deeply searching performance, given by Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.”
The Evening Standard, July 2004

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Carter Of Rewaking
“Here the soloist Gweneth-Anne Jeffers, creamy-toned and secure in her handling of Carter’s soaring, aspiring writing, while Brabbins, Cheltenham artistic director-in-waiting, deftly fitted the CBSO’s counterpoints around her.”
The Guardian , July 2004

“And Michael Berkeley, in his final year as festival director, was rewarded with a full house, while giving Cheltenham audiences a closer, highly complimentary, look at his successor, the conductor Martyn Brabbins.”
The Financial Times , July 2004

“Brabbins was marvelously alive to the music’s strangeness and its uniquely profound terseness”
The Sunday Times , July 2004

BBC Philharmonic / Cyril Scott / Chandos
“In all three works Martyn Brabbins has total control of the music’s ebb and flow…”
Gramophone, June 2004

“Martyn Brabbins finds his way through the shifting, cloudy textures with great skill.”
The Guardian , May 2004

Opera North / Smetana The Bartered Bride
“…Martyn Brabbins gave his orchestra plenty of rein. After proving their mettle with a tight, trim overture, they cavorted around with just the abandon you want in a piece not built for politesse.”
Opera, April 2004


“…Martyn Brabbins pilots the orchestra through a brilliantly suspense-building overture of rushing fugatos and a courtly romp through the ensuing folkeries.”

The Times , January 2004

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / MacMillan / MacRae / Goldschmidt / Shostakovich
“If there was one outstanding factor which unified the programme played last night by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra…then it was the performance of conductor Martyn Brabbins, working absolutely at strength, with flair colouring his familiar fastidiousness. The overriding quality he displayed, on top of his craftsmanship, was clarity, as simple and profound as that.”
The Herald , March 2004

BBC Philharmonic / Holloway 60^th Birthday
“…Sustaining Holloway’s intricate textures and immense climaxes magnificently throughout, the BBC Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins were outstanding.”
The Guardian , October 2003

Bayerische Rundfunk / Skempton, Oehring & Ives
“…This concert of new music appeared compellingly uncertain and uncramped by convention – exactly how it should be.”

Abendzeitung, July 2003

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Fuchs & Kiel / Hyperion CDA 67354
“…You can’t fault the magic wand of Martyn Brabbins … nor the spirited and sensitive playing of the BBC Scottish band…”
BBC Music Magazine , May 2003


London Sinfonietta / Harvey Bird Concerto with Pianosong; Pintscher Tenebrae
“…Conductor Martyn Brabbins – what would adventurous concerts do without him? – led us through this disorientaing shadow world with his usual ease…”
The Times , April 2003

“…conductor Martyn Brabbins held the complicated structure together with ease – it looked like quite a feat of co-ordination between the soloist, ensemble and the live electronic treatment…”
The Daily Telegraph , April 2003


BBC Symphony Orchestra / Turnage Weekend
“…the BBC Symphony Orchestra, superbly conducted by Martyn Brabbins…”
The Times , January 2003


BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival / Nørgard & Duddell
“…the man who has become indispensable to new music in Britain, Martyn Brabbins.”
The Times , November 2002

“…The BBCSSO tackled this demanding programme with gritty professionalism, and Martyn Brabbins, whose range of musical sympathies seems inexhaustible, conducted with his customary formidable authority.”
Huddersfield Daily Examiner, November 2002

“…All four works were superbly delivered by the BBC Scottish under Martyn Brabbins…”
The Daily Telegraph , November 2002

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