Stephen Layton succeeds Richard Hickox as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia from 2010.
 
 
Layton guest conducts widely, including the Philadelphia, Minnesota, London Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster, Bournemouth, Royal Scottish National, Britten Sinfonia, Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music and with English, Scottish, Irish and Australian chamber orchestras. For English National Opera he conducted Bach’s St John Passion in a stage production with Deborah Warner.
 
 
A champion of new music, Layton has premiered Pärt, Ades and Macmillan. His bold realisation of Tavener’s epic seven-hour vigil
The Veil of the Temple, a new departure in British music, was premiered in London at the Proms and in New York at the Lincoln
Centre Festival.
 
 
Layton founded Polyphony in 1986 whilst organ scholar of King’s College Cambridge. He is Chief Guest Conductor of the Danish
National Vocal Ensemble, Music Director of Holst Singers and in 2006 was made a Fellow and Director of Music of Trinity College, Cambridge. He has been Director of Music at the Temple in London and Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Kammerkoor.
 
 
Stephen Layton’s discography on Hyperion ranges from Handel with original instruments to Bruckner and Poulenc, Pärt and Tavener, Lukaszewski and Whitacre. He has received the Gramophone Award in the UK, the Diapason d’Or in France, The Compact Award in Spain and two Grammy nominations in the USA.