Thomas Blunt has established a versatile and wide-ranging international career, conducting in theatres and concert halls across the world in repertoire ranging from Bach to contemporary music. His conducting has been praised for its dramatic instinct, stylistic assurance and vitality. Described by The Times as “a fine conductor”, he studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music in London, and was the first British participant in the prestigious Allianz International Conductors’ Academy, where he worked with the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras. In 2025 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Coro da Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. 

 

Blunt began his career as Chorus Master at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and has since conducted L’elisir d’amore, Falstaff, La cenerentola, Il barbiere and Rigoletto on the Glyndebourne Tour. For Rigoletto, Opera Magazine praised his conducting “like a true Verdi veteran”. His work at Glyndebourne with Music Director Vladimir Jurowski led to his appointment as Jurowski’s Assistant Conductor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. 

 

He has since conducted the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall, including three UK premieres, as well as at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Sala São Paulo, where the orchestra was joined by the Coro da Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo for Bruckner’s Mass in E minor. For OSESP, he has subsequently conducted Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Bach’s Cantata Wachet auf and Brahms’s Requiem.

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In the theatre, Blunt has conducted Idomeneo for Royal Danish Opera; Jephtha and The Magic Flute for Welsh National Opera; Don Pasquale, La traviata and Don Giovanni for Longborough Festival Opera, where his conducting was praised for its “intuitive sense of the drama”; Madama Butterfly for Iford Arts; La cenerentola for Opéra national du Rhin; and the world premiere of Dave Maric’s Ghosts for the Royal Opera House, London.

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In addition to his engagements with the LPO and OSESP, concert highlights include appearances with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur and at the St Endellion Festival. Alongside his work with Vladimir Jurowski at Glyndebourne and the LPO, Blunt has assisted conductors including Maurizio Benini, Edward Gardner, Lothar Koenigs and Enrique Mazzola, as well as Iván Fischer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Bernard Haitink with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked for Opera North, Opéra de Lyon, La Monnaie and the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano.