A new stage in our long history of championing emerging conductors begins this March, with the introduction of six new Assistant Conductors.

Each Assistant Conductor will be assigned at least 4 weeks of work with the CBSO, to assist us in a full range of our activity from Family Concerts to our international tours, World Premiere performances, and everything in between. They will also benefit from meetings and workshops with CBSO musicians, management and stakeholders, alongside an open invitation to attend all our rehearsals and concerts throughout the period from March 22 - June 23.

These promising young conductors were chosen by a panel of CBSO musicians and management from an incredibly competitive field of applicants. Each brings valuable experience and fresh perspectives to the music we're proud to make, right here in Birmingham.

Bertie Baigent

Bertie Baigent is Music Director of Waterperry Opera Festival and one of the finalists in the Rotterdam International Conducting Competition 2022 where he will conduct Rotterdam Philharmonic and Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. He won the Orchestra Award at the recent Tokyo International Conducting Competition and returns to Japan in summer 2022 to conduct the NHK Symphony. He also participates in the League of American Orchestras’ Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview in spring 2022.

Recent highlights for Bertie have included debuts with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Opera Holland Park; a series of all-Beethoven concerts with the Colorado Symphony (where he was Assistant Conductor from 2018-20); and productions of L’elisir d’amore, Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Dido and Aeneas and Partenope – directing the latter two from the harpsichord.

Bertie has assisted Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Jac van Steen and Masaaki Suzuki at the Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, London Sinfonietta and Britten Sinfonia. He has participated in masterclasses with Martyn Brabbins and Pierre-André Valade, and as part of the Dirigentenforum in Germany.

Born in 1995, Bertie studied at the Royal Academy of Music where he won the Sir Henry Wood Scholarship and Ernest Read Prize. Bertie’s compositions have been awarded commissions and prizes by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the National Centre for Early Music.

Olivia Clarke

British/Irish conductor Olivia Clarke is the current English National Opera Mackerras Fellow. The two-year bespoke conducting fellowship is supported by the Philip Loubser Foundation and mentored by ENO’s Music Director Martyn Brabbins. Clarke recently jumped in at Cadogan Hall to conduct ENO Orchestra in an opera gala concert with National Opera Studio. In 2021 she conducted a performance of Glyndebourne's new Fidelio production, whilst also covering and assisting and has been invited to rejoin Glyndebourne’s musical staff again in autumn 2022 .

Coming out of the British lockdown she conducted the Southbank Sinfonia in one of the first concerts with an audience at St. John Smith's Square. Next to her assistant work at the English National Opera she is conducting a performance of ENO’s new production of Cunning Little Vixen in their 21/22 season. This summer Clarke will be conducting Donizetti‘s Rita and Wolf-Ferrari‘s Il segreto di Susana in IF opera‘s inaugural season.

A recipient of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst scholarship for her conducting studies, Olivia Clarke trained at the International Conducting Academy Berlin, Universität der Künste, graduating in 2020. Before moving to Berlin, Olivia Clarke completed her Masters in singing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Clarke is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists and completed her Bachelors in Music with an Organ Scholarship at the Queen's College, University of Oxford.

Otis Enokido-Lineham

Otis Enokido-Lineham is a British/Japanese conductor based in London. Currently finishing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Sian Edwards, he gained his undergraduate degree in Cello at the RNCM. Born in London, he began his musical education at the Centre for Young Musician (CYM) and is passionate about the continuation of music education for children.

At the Academy he has assisted conductors such as Mark Elder, John Wilson, Ludovic Morlot and Alice Farnham and undertaken masterclasses with Jac van Steen, Edward Gardner and Manuel Nawri. As a student he has also participated in exchanges with the Hochschule für Musik Saar and upcoming visits to Amsterdam and Sao Paolo.

Outside the concert hall Otis is keen to explore new ways of presenting classical music and the possibilities of cross-arts collaboration and immersive performance. He is currently the assistant conductor for the New Mozart Orchestra which delivers schools performances in Buckinghamshire and developing new collaborative performances with artists from a variety of disciplines.

His upcoming work includes assisting the revival of Laura Bowler’s Houses Slide at the Aldeburgh Festival 2022 with the London Sinfonietta, the premiere of a new children’s opera Daylighting by Louise Drewett as part of the RAM bicentenary celebrations and participating in the Festival de Campos do Jordão.

Jack Lovell-Huckle

Jack Lovell-Huckle is currently working as a Conductor, Arranger/Orchestrator, Orchestral Librarian and Piano Technician.

A music graduate from the University of Birmingham, he went on to study Orchestral Conducting with David Jones at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. As well as working extensively with all the ensembles he assisted Timothy Murray (National Dance Company of Wales), Alice Farnham (Welsh National Youth Opera), Nicholas Cleobury (Britten Sinfonia), Sir Richard Armstrong (Scottish Opera) and Carlo Rizzi (Welsh National Opera). He also took part in masterclasses with baroque virtuoso violinist Rachel Podger and musicians from Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

In 2015 he assisted Alice Farnham on David Bruce’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter at the Royal Opera House and was Musical Director for Somerset Opera’s production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea with Donald Maxwell.

Jack is currently the Music Director for the Birmingham Gay Symphony Orchestra, Musical Director for Opera’r Ddraig, Cardiff and
Chorus Director for Spires Music, Coventry. He is passionate about working with professional performers, emerging artists, and amateur musicians as well as devising and leading concerts for young and diverse audiences. He has continued his conducting studies with Michael Seal and is currently the Librarian at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as well as being in demand as a Piano Technician across the Midlands.

Charlotte Politi

Charlotte Politi is currently the Constant Lambert Conducting Fellow with The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

She was recently a quarter-finalist at the Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon and she was selected to work with Riccardo Muti at the Italian Opera Academy in 2020. In 2021 she was one the participants at the Conductors’ Academy of the
Tonhalle Orchester Zürich under the guidance of Paavo Järvi.

Politi was born in Paris and grew up in Italy, where she studied conducting with mentors Piero Bellugi and Oleg Caetani and was selected as a conducting fellow at the Accademia Chigiana in 2015. She later studied at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe (Germany), and she graduated with a Master degree from the University of Michigan (USA) under the guidance of Kenneth Kiesler.

She has recently conducted orchestras such as Baden-Baden Philharmonie, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Philharmonisches Kammerorchester
Dresden and Orchestra da Camera del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Konstantinos Terzakis

Recently selected as conductor of the Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie of Klangspuren Schwaz, Konstantinos Terzakis has been based in the United Kingdom since 2019 when he began his Master's in orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Martyn Brabbins, Garry Walker and Alasdair Mitchell. He has recently been awarded the Hugh S. Roberton Prize for Orchestral Conducting and second prize at the 4th International Composer Award of Vienna. Alongside his studies, he has been expanding his training in Ballet, conducting with Richard Honner.

Born in Athens, he graduated with B.Mus Honors in 2017 and was awarded the 1st Prize from the Ionian University. During his bachelor's degree, he studied orchestral conducting with Miltos Logiadis, and pursued further study with Bart Bouckaert at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.

He was awarded first prize at the 9th National Conducting Competition of Michalis Economou and has been a finalist in the Lanyi Conducting Competition and the 1st Conducting Competition of the Athens State Orchestra.

He has further developed his conducting through study with distinguished conductors such as Sian Edwards,Thomas Søndergård, Mark Wigglesworth, Ilan Volkov, Otto Tausk, Antony Hermus, Jessica Cottis, and Michalis Economou as well as with prestigious professional orchestras and ensembles such as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Red Note ensemble and the Berlin Sinfonietta.

Examples of other past collaborations include the Red Note ensemble, TETTTIX, the Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Greek Radio Contemporary Orchestra and the Athens Symphony Orchestra.