Tony Bridgewater has had wide conducting experience over many years. He conducted the Stourbridge Choral and Orchestral Society for 6 years, and was made President of the society in 2008. He directed many major works including Schubert’s 4th Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony, Britten’s Noyes Fludde, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Symphony no104, Handel’s Messiah and Acis and Galatea, Weber's 2nd Clarinet Concerto, Hummel's Trumpet Concerto and  piano concertos by Mendelssohn and Rachmaninov with pianist Mark Bebbington as soloist. During this time he also attended conducting masterclasses at Canterbury with Rodney Winther of Ithaca College, New York.

 

In 2013 he conducted the Central England Ensemble in a programme including Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, Schubert's 4th Symphony and his own Double Concerto for Flute and Clarinet which received a 4 star review from the Birmingham Evening Post. He conducted his concerto again with the orchestra in 2015, in a programme also including Mozart's 40th Symphony.  In March 2017 he conducted the CEE in a programme including Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto, Mozart's 41st Symphony and the premiere of his ‘The Legend of the Tamar’, a fifteen minute tone poem for orchestra.

 

As Director of Music at Old Swinford Hospital and Ridgewood High School, Stourbridge, he conducted many school ensembles in concerts in Europe and the USA, including choral performances in St Mark’s Cathedral, Venice, Salzburg Cathedral, Barcelona Cathedral and Montserrat Abbey, Catalonia.

 

In 2013 he conducted the National Flute Orchestra at short notice in a programme of works including the Andrew Downes Sonata for Flutes, and he was invited to be the permanent director of the Ensemble from 2014. The ensemble performs a wide range of music for the full range of flutes, including popular classical arrangements and original compositions of the C20 and C21.

 

In 2021 he took up a new post conducting the Wyre Forest Symphony Orchestra, giving his first concert with them in December 2021.

 

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