The young English conductor Quentin Clare made his professional debut at the age of only 25 when he conducted the Hallé Orchestra in December 2000 at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. Since then he has given performances with orchestras in the UK which include the BBC Philharmonic (broadcast on BBC 4 and later on BBC Radio 3), Ensemble Eleven and English Northern Sinfonia who invited him back for further performances only six months after his initial engagement.

Quentin has conducted orchestras in the Netherlands including the Radio Philharmonic, North Holland Philharmonic (now Holland Symfonia), Musica Ducis and the Zeeuws Orkest and in 2002 he directed performances with Opera Minora of an English triptych of one-act operas by Holst and Britten in both the Royal and National Theatres. In 2008 he became music director of the New Mannheim orchestra and choir with whom he performs regularly. Opportunities in Germany have included conducting the orchestras in Bochum, Nürnberg, Hagen and Würzburg and also as an assistant with the New Berlin Chamber Orchestra. In 2009 he conducted the Danish National Symphony.

Recently Quentin worked for the first time in France on a production of Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Opera Nationale de Lorraine and this led to a further invitation to conduct a series of concerts with the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy. Further, Quentin conducted for the first time at the Opera Nationale du Rhin in Strasbourg where he was involved in the French premiere of Robert Carsen's acclaimed production of Battistelli's "Richard III".

Quentin studied conducting in the UK with Andrew Mogrelia and in the Netherlands where he graduated with a Masters Degree in Music from the Royal Conservatory in the Hague after completing his studies with Jac van Steen, Ed Spanjaard and Micha Hamel.

updated 11/2011