HM Concerts

Principal Conductor

Stephen Pratt

A composer, conductor and broadcaster, Stephen Pratt (b. Liverpool, 1947) initially trained to be a teacher; he then studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music (conducting), and the Universities of Reading and Liverpool (composition). Whilst his work has since been performed around the UK and abroad, he has enjoyed a particularly long association with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and its musicians, with over a dozen works premiered by the orchestra or its ensembles. The first of these was Some of their Number, conducted by Simon Rattle in March 1980, and the most recent, Symphonies of Time and Tide, was premiered by the orchestra with Vasily Petrenko in January 2018.

He has also worked extensively with the orchestra’s 10/10 ensemble, and his most recently-commissioned work, Noting the Landscape, was premiered by the ensemble in June 2024. In addition to his work with the RLPO, he had a long-standing relationship with the contemporary music ensemble Psappha, and his most recent commission for them, Telling the Tale, was first performed and filmed in 2019. For some years he wrote for The Guardian and Classical Music and presented on BBC Radio 3 and 4. As a conductor he has worked with the RLPO, Halle and several amateur and student orchestras in the NW and has been the principal conductor of Hope Metropolitan Orchestra (and its Metropolitan Cathedral predecessor) for 40 years. In recent years he has composed three works for this orchestra – two sets of Imaginary Folksongs (2017, 2023) and A short flight across the city (2022).

Stephen holds Emeritus Professorships in Music from Gresham College, London, and Liverpool Hope University, where he was Professor and Head of Music for many years. He still retains a working connection with Hope, and also mentors a number of composers including winners of the RLPO/Rushworth Composition prize. His work since 2001 has been published by edition hh. Further information, and recordings of Stephen’s work, can be found on his website: stephenprattcomposer.uk

Associate Conductor

Helen Thomas

Helen was encouraged and inspired to conduct when she attended a Royal Philharmonic Society short course for women conductors led by Alice Farnham. She went on to study conducting at Sherborne Summer School (2018 & 2019) with Rodolfo Saglimbeni and John Longstaff. In 2019 she completed the RNCM Conducting Course for Music Educators, tutored by Mark Heron, where she had the opportunity to conduct the Halle Youth Orchestra.

In 2018 Helen was appointed conductor of Chester Sinfonia, a community orchestra which has more than trebled in size under her direction and has developed a reputation as one of the friendliest orchestras in the region. Recent highlights with Chester Sinfonia include a performance in the furniture department of John Lewis, Chester; an annual picnic concert at St Columba’s Church, Chester; and a Christmas Concert at Dee Banks School for children with profound and multiple needs.

Since 2019, Helen has been a tutor for the wind and chamber music courses at the Workers’ Music Association Summer School. She enjoys arranging repertoire specifically for these courses and also leads an annual Sound Walk in the grounds of Ingestre Hall.

In 2023 she was invited to conduct two concerts with Hope Metropolitan Orchestra in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and St Bride’s Church, Liverpool. Following the success of these concerts she has been appointed Associate Conductor. She is also a regular guest conductor with Wirral Symphony Orchestra where she recently helped the orchestra prepare Bruckner’s Symphony no. 9.

In addition to a wide-ranging knowledge of the Western Classical Tradition, Helen has a strong interest in historic and contemporary works by women composers and has conducted pieces by Ella Beardsall, Louise Bertin, Harriet Blaney-Green, Cecile Chaminade, Alice Mary Smith and Maria Theresia von Paradis. In Spring 2024 she conducted the world premiere performances of Rebekah Okpoti’s Adelaide Watt in the Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool and Lancaster Priory. She writes a blog Encounters with Women Composers which aims to share practical experiences of conducting historical and new work by women composers with other interested parties.

Alongside conducting, Helen is an accomplished oboist, oboe d’amore and cor anglais player and an intermediate cellist. She has gained a PhD with a thesis on Metaphors of Temporality in Avant-Garde Music of the 1960s (Lancaster University) and a Masters (with Distinction) in Music since 1900 (Liverpool Hope University). For ten years she worked for Oxford University Press promoting the works of Gerald Barry, Michael Finnissy, John Rutter and others throughout Europe. As Artistic Coordinator and Public Engagement Officer at the University of Liverpool she developed the popular, public Lunchtime Concert Series and was instrumental in the launch of The Tung Auditorium in 2022. In 2023 she was appointed a Trustee of Mahogany Opera.

Leo Byrne learned the piano and cornet as a child but then taught himself the violin from the age of 11. He had his first lesson with Eugene Genin, MBE when he was 13 and two years later he was a member of the National Youth Orchestra. He was co-leader of Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra while studying Modern and Medieval Languages at King’s College. He was taught in the NYO by Hugh Maguire of the Allegri String quartet and later by Clifford Knowles, who led the RLPO and taught at RNCM.

After gaining an LRAM (Violin Performer) at the Royal Academy in 1990 he worked as a violin maker and later returned to teaching at Calday Grange Grammar in Wirral. He taught French, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek and Mathematics, and still teaches Latin and assists the Oxbridge candidates at the school.

He has performed concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Bruch, Mendelssohn and Vivaldi with this orchestra, as well as The Lark Ascending. In addition to his performing career, Leo specialises in making bows for violin, viola and cello.