Tom Primrose

Tom Primrose is a British conductor, accompanist and coach.  He works principally in opera, and his freelance work takes him all over the world, including the Palais Garnier and the Bastille (Opéra National de Paris), Opéra de Montecarlo, Det Kongelige Teater og Kapel in Copenhagen, Polish National Opera, Korea National Opera, and the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St Petersburg.  


He will conduct Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress for the Grange Festival with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in summer 2024.


In the UK he has also freelanced for the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, the Grange Festival, Shadwell Opera, Opera Holland Park, and Opera South.  He has assisted and chorusmastered for a host of conductors including Susanna Mälkki, Alexander Soddy, David Parry, Richard Egarr, Finnigan Downie Dear, Francesco Cilluffo, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, Martin Brabbins, Stephen Barlow, and Jean-Luc Tingaud.  He returns to Opéra National de Paris in September 2023 to assist Susanna Mälkki preparing Janácek's Makropulos Case.  


He has strong connections with East Anglia where he is Artistic Co-Director of the Southrepps Music Festival,  works regularly at the University of East Anglia, and acted for a time as Assistant Organist and Director of the Girls’ Choir at Norwich Cathedral.  Amongst a host of other freelance work, he is also chorusmaster of the Newbury Festival and the Cambridge Philharmonic.


Tom is an award-winning piano accompanist, and has performed in many of the UK’s principal concert halls and festivals, on BBC television and radio, and has collaborated with leading singers and instrumentalists including Ben Johnson, Christina Gansch, Sophie Bevan, Ellie Laugharne, Jonathan McGovern, Mary Bevan, Susanna Hurrell, Ruby Hughes, Ema Nikolovska, Claire Barnett-Jones, Jose Maria del Monaco, Javier Camerena, Corrine Winters, Jonathan Bloxham, Ben Baker, Eloise Fleur Thom, Jenifer Pike, amongst many others.


Tom studied musicology at the University of Oxford with Robert Saxton, and at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Dussek and Malcolm Martineau.  He currently lives in Manchester.