Winner of the Audience Prize at the Leeds Conductors’ Competition for his “electric conducting”, MahlerFest Fellow and Assistant Conductor Michael Karcher-Young combines an innate musicianship with a visceral presence on the podium, and is a passionate advocate for classical music in today’s world.

Michael is Artistic Director and co-founder of the Beethoven Orchestra for Humanity, which was formed in 2016 to realise a new vision of the orchestral concert in today’s world. The inaugural crowdfunded performance was a sellout and universally acclaimed. He is also Music Director of the Herefordshire Youth Orchestra, and was appointed Assistant Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra following crucial work on the preparation of their world premiere performance and recording of John Joubert’s magnum opus opera Jane Eyre in Birmingham in 2017. At the ESO, Michael enjoys a close relationship with key British contemporary composers whose work the orchestra extensively performs and records to great acclaim.

Karcher-Young previously served as Music Director of both London Youth Opera and Little Operations; founding Conductor of the Vanbrugh Ensemble and the Charities Philharmonia; and Principal Conductor of the Dorking Chamber Orchestra. He has also worked with the London Philharmonic, English National Opera and Grange Park Opera.

Michael began conducting whilst an undergraduate at the University of Leeds where he was awarded the Lord Snowden Prize for raising the profile of classical music at the university. He formed the Leeds University Union Symphony Chorus and established a series of charity concerts in aid of Cancer Research UK at Leeds Town Hall that continue to this day. Whilst studying postgraduate conducting, piano and harpsichord at the Royal College of Music, Kurt Masur awarded Michael the London Philharmonic Orchestra Conducting Fellowship and following this he became the Sir Charles Mackerras Fellow at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London. Michael is a proud alumnus of Agnes Kory at the Béla Bartók Centre for Musicianship.