Over the last few years Andrew Manze has established a reputation as one of the most stimulating and inspirational conductors of his generation. He is driven by a passion for music from the baroque to the contemporary and his extensive repertoire knowledge coupled with his unique skills as a communicator have also marked him out as a particular favourite with both orchestral players and audiences.

As a guest conductor Manze has regular relationships with a number of leading orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish and Swedish Chamber Orchestras. Since September 2006 he has been Principal Conductor of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden. In 2008 they made a successful tour of the USA with a programme which Manze had specially devised entitled ‘The Eroica Effect’. In 2010–11 Manze also assumed the role of Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

After reading Classics at Cambridge University, Manze studied the violin and rapidly became a leading specialist in the world of historical performance practice. He became Associate Director of The Academy of Ancient Music in 1996 and then Artistic Director of The English Concert from 2003 to 2007.

Manze has released an astonishing variety of CDs, many of them award-winning. They include Mozart violin concertos, Handel arias with Mark Padmore, Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Vivaldi’s little-known Viennese La Cetra and a recently unearthed Biber Mass, as well as concertos by Bach, Handel and Geminiani. Manze’s long-standing collaboration with his duo partner Richard Egarr won great acclaim with their recordings of sonatas by Bach, Handel, Pandolfi, Rebel, Biber, Mozart and Schubert. These discs have won many prizes, among them two Gramophone Awards, three Edisons, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, a BBC Music Magazine Award and a 2003 Grammy nomination.

Manze is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and a visiting professor at the Oslo Academy and has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concertos by Mozart and Bach published by Bärenreiter and Breitkopf & Härtel. He also teaches, edits and writes about music, as well as broadcasting regularly on radio and television.