Charles Hazlewood occupies a unique position in British musical life. The combination of his outstanding musical talent and versatility as a conductor, and his passion for bringing classical music to the widest possible audience, has led to a significant profile as a conductor in the broadcast media, and on the world stage.

Following his studies at Christ’s Hospital and Oxford University, Hazlewood won first prize at the European Broadcasting Union Conducting Competition in Lisbon in 1995. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and guest-conducts many leading orchestras in the UK and abroad. June 2003 saw his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He made his BBC Proms conducting debut in August 2006, with the BBC Concert Orchestra; simultaneously presenting the concert live from the stage for TV.
 
Ever since the formation of his orchestra Excellent Device (previously Eos) in 1991, Hazlewood has blazed a trail in new ways of approaching music for which is he is now well known;  through talking to his audience live on stage, collaborating with other art forms (sculpture, film etc), and playing in unconventional settings. He also has a sister orchestra – Army of Generals  – which comprises the cream of period instrumentalists in London, who have featured in many of his BBC films about composers.
 
From 2000 - 2007,  Hazlewood was Music Director of the Cape Town based lyric theatre company Dimpho Di Kopane, DDK, (Sotho for “combined talents”), which he co-founded. For the company he conducted Carmen and West Side Story. As composer he conceived the music for Yiimimangaliso (The Mysteries) and Ibali Loo Tsotsi (The Beggar’s Opera), both of which have had hugely successful runs in London and on tour worldwide – and The Snow Queen, which premiered in New York in 2004.
 
Dimpho Di Kopane’s first feature film U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, (for which Hazlewood acted as Music Director and Conductor) premiered in South Africa in spring 2005, prior to international release, and was awarded the prestigious ‘Golden Bear’ award for Best Film at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival (click here to watch trailer on YouTube). Their subsequent movie, Son of Man featured a score created by Hazlewood in collaboration with the company.

As part of his passion to reach the widest possible audience for music, Hazlewood is well known to millions as “the face of classical music” (The Daily Telegraph) for the BBC, for whom he has authored and conducted the music in several groundbreaking films: Vivaldi Unmasked (BBC1), The Genius of Mozart (BBC2/4), Beethoven (BBC2/4) and Tchaikovsky (BBC2/4). He has just completed 4 landmark films with his orchestra Army of Generals called The Birth of British Music, for transmission BBC2, April 2009.
 
He occupies a central position on BBC Radio 3, with Discovering Music, where he deconstructs great orchestral music with the BBC orchestras and his own two orchestras. He also hosts Radio 2's The Charles Hazlewood Show, exploring his vast and catholic music tastes, in sessions recorded on his farm in Somerset. The show has won Hazlewood 3 Sony Awards.
 
Hazlewood’s eclecticism defies convention; in the past six years he has conducted over fifty orchestral world premieres, worked with the rawest new South African vocal talent, and explored artists at the cutting edge of the pop music scene in the UK, in projects such as ‘Urban Classic’: fusing five Grime MC’s with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Hackney Empire. He launched the 'Charles Hazlewood All Stars' at Glastonbury Festival 2008, featuring Will Gregory (Goldfrapp), Adrian Utley (Portishead), saxophonist Andy Sheppard and cellist Matthew Barley.
 
Upcoming highlights include Hazlewood making his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a fully staged production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with Mendelssohn's music, the completion of a longterm orchestral project with Welsh psychedelic rockers Super Furry Animals, a new production of Kurt Weill's forgotten masterpiece Lost in the Stars at London's South Bank Centre, and appearances at both Glastonbury and the Glade Festivals with the Charles Hazlewood All Stars. 
 
Charles Hazlewood lives with his family in Somerset.
 
Charles Hazlewood is acid-hot!     The Observer