Thomas Payne is establishing himself as a sought after conductor. Recently conducting orchestras such as The Orchestra of the Royal Danish Theatre, The Orchestra of The Royal Opera House, Southbank Sinfonia and Neue Streicher Wien, Thomas finds himself at home in a variety of repertoire. He was recently appointed Musical Director of London City Orchestra and was a Jette Parker Young Artist at The Royal Opera House, serving as Music Staff for productions with The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet. At Covent Garden he was Cover Conductor for performances of The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Mayerling, Don Quixote and La Bayadere among many others and served as off stage conductor for The Royal Opera’s production of Otello. He is fortunate to have received tuition and masterclasses from the world’s leading conductors such as Sir Antonio Pappano, Koen Kessels, Ed Gardner, Steuart Bedford and Sian Edwards. He was taught privately for a number of years by Philip Ellis.

This season Thomas has assisted Lee Reynolds with orchestras such as The Philharmonia Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and in 2019 was Assistant Conductor for Grange Park Opera for their revival of Don Carlo. From 2017-18 he was Chorus Master for Longborough Festival Opera for their productions of Fidelio, Tristan und Isolde and Der fliegende Holländer to critical acclaim. Since his time there he has been invited to conduct for Scottish Ballet and Northern Ballet. In 2020 he cnoducted HGO’s production of Holst’s Sāvitri. Thomas will conduct performance of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Green Opera and recently opened Opera Asteria’s first season with a performance of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia.