The London born conductor Kevin Griffiths has lived in Switzerland most of his life. He is well known on the Swiss music scene, working with orchestras including the Tonhalle orchestra Zurich, the Lucerne Symphony orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the Musikkollegium Winterthur.

Internationally he has not only attained creditability through mastering contemporary scores, but also through guest conducting the Brandenburg State Symphony Orchestra, the Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Navarra, the Austrian Arpeggione Chamber Orchestra, the Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra, and the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie with which he also performs annual New Years concerts in the Tonhalle Zurich and the KKL Lucerne.

He is principal conductor and founder of The London Steve Reich Ensemble. They have performed in London, Den Haag, the Cheltenham Music Festival, the Orpheum Festival at the Tonhalle Zurich and have collaborated with dancers of The Royal Ballet London. They recorded their Debut-CD for CPO Records and won the acclaimed Diapason d'Or award.

Kevin Griffiths has worked with composer Rodolphe Schacher, conducted a UK premiere by American composer Steven Mackey. Five further première performances by different composers including Elena Firsova at the Dartington Summer Festival were received with considerable acclaim, thus emphasizing his keen interest in contemporary music.

Another side to his work is his dedication to making classical music accessible for young people. He directs and narrates concerts for children at large-scale venues that hold up to 1500 children and their families. They have proven to be a great success and are increasingly in demand.


Artists with whom Kevin Griffiths has worked include Boris Pergamenschikov, Ricardo Castro, Dmitri Ashkenazy, Ingulf Turban, Peter Bruns, the Dante Quartet and soloists from the Berlin Philharmonic (Stefan Dohr, Wenzel Fuchs, Jonathan Kelly, Markus Weidmann)

His two-year appointment as Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music came to an end in summer 2009. During this period he studied with Sir Mark Elder, Mark Shanahan and Clark Rundell and conducted opera productions that include Ravel's double bill L'heure espagnol and L'enfant et les sortileges and "Die Fledermaus" by Johann Strauss.

He conducted several performances including the opening concerts at the Musique Cordiale Festival in France as well as an opera production of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneus. He is part of the Pocket Opera Company Zurich were he has conducted Offenbach’s Barbe-Bleue, G&S’s Pirates of Penzance and will perform The Gondoliers.

Kevin Griffiths initially completed his training as a violinist with Adelina Oprean, Igor Ozim and Giuliano Carmignola. He received his first conducting lessons from his father Howard Griffiths MBE, whom he has assisted on various occasions. Kevin Griffiths has participated in master classes and has studied with conductor Sir Colin Davis, Jorma Panula, Lothar Zagrosek, George Hurst, and Yan Pascal Tortelier. He was a finalist at the first Orpheum Conducting Master Class held in Zurich.


Major influences in his development as a conductor include his studies with David Zinman, who awarded him a fellowship for the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2004 and 2005, and with Colin Metters, with whom he studied at the Royal Academy of Music on the Post-graduate Conducting Course, successfully completed in the summer of 2007.