Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester from 2000 to 2024, he is now its Conductor Emeritus. Principal Guest Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra since 2023, he will take up the post of Music Director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia in September 2025. Music Director of English National Opera (1979-1993), he was also Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the CBSO in Birmingham. In 2026, he will celebrate 50 years of collaboration with Covent Garden and has also performed at the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 1994 with La bohème. He was the first Englishman to conduct a new production at the Bayreuth Festival. Awarded a CBE in 1988, he was knighted in 2008. Sir Mark Elder holds the Barbirolli Chair at the Royal Academy of Music.