Conductor, jazz trumpeter, pianist, singer, researcher, teacher and writer, Ed Liebrecht is currently working as a conductor in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, and brings all of his various influences and practices into what he does as a conductor. Recently he assisted John Wilson with the Sinfonia of London at the BBC Proms, Kevin Edusei with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Antony Hermus in his new role as chief conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels. Ed is particularly dedicated to new music, leading to recent assistancies with Asko | Schönberg, working with Clark Rundell, Bas Wiegers, Baldur Brönniman and Brad Lubman. In 2021 Ed graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with a distinction in his Masters and the Fred Southall Prize for his outstanding final exam. In various contexts, Ed has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the Residentie Orkest, Nederlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Haydn Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Kontraste, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Philharmonie ZuidNederland, PHION, the Dutch National Youth Orchestra and more.

In September 2021, Ed moved to Amsterdam to study with Jac van Steen, Ed Spanjaard and Kenneth Montgomery on the National Masters in Orchestral Conducting. Current projects include assisting Jac van Steen with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra on Peter Benoît’s massive De Oorlog, assisting Bas Wiegers on a programme as part of the Cello Biennale, and returning to Brussels with Antony Hermus. In the UK Ed is director and founder of Gustav Mahler Orchestra, who have premiered several new works alongside more well-known pieces (often, of course, by Mahler). He was previously co-founder and musical director of Oxfordshire Festival Orchestra, who also specialised in new music, which was dissolved after its players moved away and the money was used for local musical projects.

Since 2019 Ed has assisted a wide range of conductors, including John Wilson, Antony Hermus, Jac van Steen, Anja Bihlmaier, Martin Sieghart, Sir Mark Elder, Duncan Ward, Clark Rundell, Edward Gardner, Natalia Luis Bassa, Peter Whelan, Ed Spanjaard and Trevor Pinnock, as well as Robert Trevino with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Ed has participated in masterclasses with Lorenzo Viotti, Johannes Wildner, Peter Stark, Martyn Brabbins, Sir Mark Elder, Jac van Steen and many others. He counts amongst his most influential mentors Sian Edwards, Martyn Brabbins,  John Wilson and Peter Sheppard Skaerved.

Ed’s research and teaching largely concerns analysis and philosophy, especially concerning the relationship and interstices between aesthetics and ethics, and he continues to teach undergraduate musicology and analysis at the University of Cambridge, alongside many private students in theory, history, philosophy of music and conducting. He is also an active arranger and editor, having arranged a large number of works for smaller forces (particularly useful during pandemic times), and editing and completing his own version of Mahler’s 10th Symphony. Ed enjoys close collaborations with composers Joanna Ward and Matthew Holmes, soprano Helena Moore and violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones. 

Previously, Ed has been in big bands, small jazz ensembles (including Marie and the Boys), brass bands, pit bands, choirs and, of course, orchestras, and has conducted in all of these genres. This background continues to contribute to everything he does.

Ed is determined to see a world where music can appeal to everyone, be an important part of the wider political, environmental and social picture, and where all types of music can meaningfully coexist.