Our Tutors
John Farrer was Music Director of the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, California for over 30 years, was formerly President of the Conductors Guild and has been Music Director of the Roswell Symphony Orchestra for over 40 years. He is also Music Director of the Santa Maria Philharmonic.
Mr Farrer is a frequent guest with orchestras in England, and visits London on a regular basis in the capacity of guest conductor. As senior guest conductor of the English Sinfonia he has toured with the orchestra throughout England and northern France. His eight recordings with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony and English Sinfonia have received high praise from critics around the world. He has been associated with the San Francisco Symphony as a cover conductor for the orchestra's subscription concerts.
Mr Farrer was a speaker in the San Francisco Symphony's series of Inside Music talks, led the orchestra in Concerts for Kids, and conducted a programme at Stern Grove which attracted 20,000 listeners. Mr Farrer is also a member of the music advisory committee of the Young Musicians Foundation of Los Angeles, and has been appointed a national trustee of the National Symphony Orchestra of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
Maestro Farrer recently received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of California Fine Arts System.
Howard Williams, one of Britain’s most experienced conductors on the international platform, has covered a formidable range of work both in the opera house and concert hall. In the UK, he has conducted most of the leading orchestras.
In Europe Howard has appeared with the Austrian Radio Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Belgian Radio Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Hungarian Radio Symphony, Budapest Philharmonic, Orchestre Nationale de Lyon, Orchestre de Strasbourg, Orchestre Symphonique de Montpellier, Orchestre de Picardie, RTE Symphony Orchestra, Dublin and the Portuguese National Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted at the BBC Proms and at the Edinburgh, Leeds, Bath and Brighton Festivals, as at festivals in Budapest, Hong Kong, and throughout France and Spain.
Following his appointment in 1989 as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Pécs Symphony Orchestra (now Pannon Philharmonic), Hungary, Howard devoted much time to working with the leading orchestras in that country. He has been awarded the Artisjus award and Bartók Medal for services to Hungarian music. On leaving Pécs in 2000, Howard was created Permanent Guest Conductor by the orchestra. In the same year he was appointed Head of Conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Since 2013 he has been Musical Director of the Sinfonia of Cambridge.
His six years’ in Cardiff enabled him to explore and develop his attitude to training conductors and student orchestras. He is now a Professor of Conducting at the Royal College of Music in London.
Luigi Pagliarini studied clarinet and classical singing before graduating with honours at the Conservatorio de Bologna in Orchestral Conducting in 2004. He has studied with Luciano Acocella, Daniele Gatti, Deyan Pavlov, Donato Renzetti, Otto Werner Mueller, Colin Metters, Dr John Farrer, Neil Thomson, Donald Thulean, Daniel Lewis, Lawrence Golan, Brooke Creswell.
Luigi is proud to have been an alumni of London Conducting Workshop, and is now highly acclaimed as a conductor of orchestral works with choir, combining his skills in orchestral conducting with his knowledge of vocal techniques, acquired in his former career as a singer in the field of Ancient and Baroque music. He founded and still conducts the Youth Orchestra OSMIM OPERA at the “Fondazione I Teatri” (Reggio Emilia), while conducting the Community Choir “Adorno” and the Choir of the “De André” Theatre.
For several years he conducted the Baroque Orchestra “Gli Invaghiti” (Chivasso, Italy). He teaches Clarinet in public schools in Italy, and Music Theory and Chamber Music at the Reggio Emilia Conservatory.
Fuensanta Figueroa was born in Bilbao (Basque Country-Spain). She begins her music studies at the Baracaldo Music Conservatory, getting there her Piano and Trumpet Degrees. Later she moves to Bilbao Conservatory getting there her High Degrees in Theory of the Music, Transposition, Accompaniment and Pedagogy of Music as well as Harmony, Counterpoint, Composition and Orchestration. Once finished her studies in Bilbao, she moved to the Music Conservatory of San Sebastián, coursing Musicology It’s at this town where she begins her orchestra conducting classes in 2001, being instructed by conductors as Tomás Aragües, José María Oiarzabal or Miguel Amantegui so getting her High Degree in Orchestral Conducting.
Among the international conducting workshops that she has attended, Fuensanta is proud to have been an alumni of London Conducting Workshop, attending the 2006, 2007 and 2008 London Conducting Workshop, held at the Royal College of Music, London. She was given there the opportunity of conducting the New Professionals of the Royal College of Music as a full participant and refining aspects of technique and performance.
In 2017 she was appointed Director of the Municipal Professional Conservatory of Barakaldo. In the management of the center, she has carried out an expansion of the Conservatory, which has incorporated in recent years the specialties of Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba and Singing.