Charles Hazlewood

Charles Hazlewood Speaker Biography

Three times TED speaker, Charles Hazlewood is a British conductor of international acclaim. He has conducted some of the greatest classical repertoire with some of the best orchestras in the world. But Hazlewood is more than a conductor, he is a visionary with a mission to bring the ever modern joy of orchestral music to a new audience and in doing so, change lives and communities for the better.

Dubbed, the 'British Bernstein' by the New York Sun, Hazlewood believes that music can overcome barriers of language, class and culture and has proved this over his career: an opera company recruited from black townships in South Africa that won the Golden Bear Award for best film at the Berlin Film Festival, a pay-what-you-can orchestral music festival attended by 1000’s of people who had never heard an orchestra live before, and the world’s first orchestra of disabled musicians, who played alongside Coldplay at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympics and continue to tour the world demonstrating the incredible creative talent of disabled people to new audiences all over the world. And these are just the headlines.

Hazlewood is not only well known for what he has achieved, but how he achieved it. Eschewing the model of conductor as dictator; he has evolved a creative leadership style that has won the hearts and minds of many in the world of arts, business, education, sports, medicine and industry.

Hazlewood guest-conducts orchestras around the world and is a familiar figure on British TV and radio.