Charles Hazlewood

Charles is standing to the left of the frame, with his arms raised as he conducts. He is in a brightly lit space and is dressed all in white. Behind him, in soft focus, are three musicians seated with music stands in front of them.

Paraorchestra is led by the remarkable vision of our Artistic Director Charles Hazlewood.

Charles won first prize in the European Broadcasting Union Conducting Competition while still in his twenties, and has conducted many of the world’s great orchestras including Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Swedish and Danish Radio Symphony Orchestras, Philharmonia and The Orchestra of St Luke’s, New York.

Since founding Paraorchestra over a decade ago Charles has blazed a trail for the classical sector, leading our orchestra through performances around the globe, releasing two studio albums and creating ambitious, genre-busting live works that upend orchestral orthodoxies. In 2024, he conducted and co-directed The Virtuous Circle for our BBC Proms debut.

Charles has authored, presented, and conducted the music in multiple landmark films for BBC TV and Sky Arts and has won three Sony Radio Academy Awards for his shows on BBC Radio 2 and 3. He has conducted over 200 world premieres and founded Dimpho Di Kopane – an award-winning opera company out of township South Africa, which toured the world and whose film U Carmen e-Khayelitsha won the Berlin Film Festival 'Golden Bear' for Best Film.

Charles has three TED talks to his name, was recently a Castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and in 2021 became Sky Arts Ambassador for Music. In 2023, he was further honoured by leading charity Making Music, with the Sir Charles Groves prize for 'his outstanding contribution to the musical life of the United Kingdom'.