PAUL BATEMAN

Paul Bateman studied piano, organ, singing and ‘cello at the Guildhall School of Music in London, and began his musical life as an accompanist, chamber musician and opera repetiteur.

He has since conducted recordings with the Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, London Symphony, Munich Symphony, Vienna Symphony (for José Carreras) and City of Prague Philharmonic orchestras and has given concerts with the BBC Concert, Malmo Symphony, Seville Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Dallas Symphony, Russian National (at the Bolshoi Theatre), Tokyo Philharmonic and Ulster orchestras.

Paul Bateman conducted and orchestrated Lesley Garrett’s albums A Soprano In Hollywood and A North Country Lass and his orchestrations also appear on many of her television programmes.

He conducts film music concerts all over the world and has recorded many film music albums for Silva Screen Records in Prague. He has conducted over thirty albums of film music including two volumes of Hitchcock film scores, albums of the music of Bernard Herrmann, Maurice Jarre, John Williams and Ennio Morricone, and collections of Korngold, Steiner and Tiomkin. His total discography now includes over seventy recordings, many of which feature daily on Classic FM. Paul conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra for the album ‘Idylls and Elegies’ – the music of John Jeffreys and a new recording of John Jeffreys Violin Concerto, yet to be released.

Paul first appeared at Bryn Terfel’s Faenol Festival in 2000 and was invited to return in 2002. He conducted the Norwegian Radio Orchestra for the Nobel Peace Prize concerts in Oslo from 2000 to 2002, accompanying a dazzling array of international artists including Bryn Terfel, Barbara Hendricks, Jessye Norman, Santana and Sir Paul McCartney.

Paul Bateman’s association with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra goes back several years, having regularly conducted their ‘Filmharmonic’ and ‘Film Music Gala’ concerts at the Royal Albert Hall for nine consecutive years, many concerts in the UK and a tour of Korea. He also made two recordings of Filmharmonic with them and for Sony Classics, recordings with violinists Eijin Nomura and Vanessa-Mae.

For Sarah Brightman he has conducted recordings of his own arrangements with the LSO and RPO and gives concerts with her all over the world.
In 2009, 2010 and 2014 Paul has conducted summer concerts in Malta for tenor Joseph Calleja with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the most recent with Bryn Terfel as his guest.

For the London 2012 Olympics Paul conducted a concert at the Royal Festival Hall that brought together choirs from five continents who joined together to perform a specially commissioned new work by Karl Jenkins – The Hero’s Journey.

In November 2013 he conducted for José Carreras in Japan, returning with the strong feeling that he had taken part in something particularly special, with an artist of legendary musicianship.

2013 saw the beginning of a fruitful relationship with Deutsche Grammophon and work as arranger on albums for Piotr Beczala and Daniel Hope., who also commissioned Paul to write a suite for violin and orchestra based on the songs of Kurt Weill. In 2014 Paul returned to Malta to conduct again for Joseph Calleja and Bryn Terfel. The same year saw the 9th annual film music concert (now called ‘Film Music Gala’) at the Royal Albert Hall with the RPO. The year will close with a tour of 22 concerts for Sarah Brightman taking in Beijing, Taiwan, the Baltic States, Russia and Japan.

2018 takes on a new direction being now represented by the Harlequin Agency. Concerts with the RLPO, RPO and a recording for Sir Bryn Terfel with the Czech Philharmonic. Violinist Daniel Hope continues to commission new arrangements for solo violin and strings – works by Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein.