Thomas Kemp is rapidly developing a reputation as one of the finest and imaginative conductors of his generation. The Guardian recently commented: ‘an extraordinary event [...] with a fluency that came over brilliantly under the baton of Thomas Kemp’. 

He read music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and studied violin and chamber music at the Royal Northern College of Music and has since enjoyed an international career as a chamber musician and concertmaster. From 2003-2007, he won the Swedish Academy Scholarship to study conducting at the Royal Conservatory in Stockholm with the legendary Jorma Panula and Alan Gilbert.

Thomas is Music Director of the highly acclaimed Chamber Domaine, which is at the forefront of British ensembles focusing on 20th and 21st century music. He made his conducting debut in a series of concerts celebrating Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which The Financial Times described as ‘exceptional musical events’. He is also Artistic Director of Music@Malling – an international festival that promotes contemporary composers alongside masterworks from classical and romantic periods; in 2011 the festival featured Mark-Anthony Turnage alongside works by Mahler and Mozart.

Recent conducting projects have included the Pori Sinfonietta; Gavle Symphony; Swedish Chamber Orchestra; Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Hebrides Ensemble; Chamber Domaine; and I Pomeriggi. Forthcoming conducting engagements include concerts at Kings Place; Wigmore Hall; guest conducting engagements in the UK, USA, Finland and Sweden; and world premiere recordings of Schoenberg and Barber with Chamber Domaine. Thomas will make his operatic debut in 2012 for Opera Holland Park. Thomas is an award winning recording artist and has recorded for ASV, Blackbox and Landor. He recently made his recording debut as a conductor with world premiere recordings of Henryk Górecki for Landor. He is also conducting a series of recordings for the world’s first solely digital classical record label Resonus Classics.

He has also performed at many leading festivals in the UK and overseas and has broadcast regularly around the world. He is a guest artist at Bargemusic, New York and, since his debut in 2000, has been a regular at Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre and Carnegie Hall, New York. In 2009, Thomas worked closely with the Turner Prize winning artist Anish Kapoor for the Brighton Festival to great acclaim. He teaches as the Royal Northern College of Music and has given masterclasses worldwide.