Respected English conductor George Vass studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music, London. He has been Artistic Director of the Presteigne Festival since 1992, having held a similar position at the Hampstead & Highgate Festival (2004–09). Vass made his professional debut at St John’s Smith Square in 1979 and has since appeared at many of the UK’s leading concert halls and festivals.
He has conducted many distinguished ensembles including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, the Ulster Orchestra and London Mozart Players, as well as the Malmö Opera Orchestra. His work with choral ensembles includes collaborations with Bath Camerata and the choirs of Royal Holloway, King’s College London and Merton College, Oxford. He has broadcast for BBC Radio 3 and Channel 4.
As founder and Artistic Director of Nova Music Opera, Vass has premiered works by Sally Beamish, Charlotte Bray, Thomas Hyde, Cecilia McDowall, Joseph Phibbs, Julian Philips and others, in addition to conducting productions of Curlew River and Sāvitri. In 2025, he gave the world premiere of Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade’s Scenes from Under Milk Wood at the Spitalfields Festival.
A passionate advocate for new music, having commissioned some 350 contemporary works, he was awarded a BASCA Gold Badge in 2017 and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Leslie Boosey Award in 2025 in recognition of his exceptional support for living composers.
Alongside his festival work and professional conducting, George Vass is deeply committed to community music-making. He serves as Music Director of the Bushey Symphony Orchestra and frequently collaborates with the Blaze Ensemble and the Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra.
His extensive discography encompasses chamber opera, orchestral and choral repertoire, released on leading labels including BIS, Lyrita, Naxos, Resonus Classics, SOMM and Toccata Classics. Recent releases include Cecilia McDowall: Cantatas with the Choir of Royal Holloway and Orchestra Nova (Resonus); Piano concertos by Britten, Tippett and Walton with Clare Hammond and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BIS); and concertante works by Henriëtte Bosmans with Gemma Rosefield, Benjamin Nabarro and the BBC Philharmonic (Resonus).
Vass is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, a recipient of the BAFA Exceptional Service Award (2018) and the Welsh Music Guild’s John Edwards Memorial Award (2023) for services to Welsh music. He also serves as a governor of the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain.
George Vass rehearsing Orchestra Nova at St John’s Smith Square – Photograph by Liz Isles