Elizabeth Vergara Gallego

Biography

Elizabeth Vergara Gallego is a Colombian conductor currently living in Manchester, UK. She is quickly establishing herself as a conductor of great versatility, comfortable in a wide range of repertoire. Elizabeth is a charismatic artist and music educator who strongly believes in art as an instrument of social transformation. She is currently studying for her master's degree in orchestral conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, under the tutelage of Mark Heron and Clark Rundell. As a student of the RNCM, she would have the opportunity to work closely with world class orchestras such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC philharmonic and Royal Northern ballet as assistant conductor. In addition, Elizabeth will be the Chief Conductor of Settle Orchestra in the 2021-2022 season.

Over the last few years Elizabeth has had the opportunity to work as a conductor with youth and professional orchestras around Latin America, such as Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, EAFIT Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Symphonic Orchestra Batuta, Caldas Symphony Orchestra, Central Orchestra from Sinfonia por el Perú, Iberacademy Philharmonic Orchestra, the Academy Orchestra from Tarija, Venezuela National Philharmonic Orchestra, Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cali Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been developing a large range of orchestral repertoire, not only of standard pieces from the symphonic world, but also on music by Latin American composers to whom she feels a strong personal attachment. Elizabeth has also had experience as an opera conductor. In 2015 she was selected to conduct the opera Die Zauberflöte, with the Student Orchestra of EAFIT University (Colombia) and she has also collaborated with independent opera projects in the city of Medellín (Colombia).

In 2015 she served as assistant conductor at the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, where she assisted maestros such as Francisco Rettig, Roberto Gonzales Monjas, Alejandro Posada and Pablo Mielgo.

As an educator, Elizabeth has been actively involved in different projects with institutions such as Iberacademy Orchestra, Sinfonia por el Peru, Tarija Academy Orchestra and Fundacion Batuta. She has held different positions in each of these organizations, from teaching children just beginning their journey in music, to coaching already advanced musicians in the art of conducting. She has also conducted educational concerts and led social Development programmes in underdeveloped areas of Colombia.

Elizabeth has been recipient of many different scholarships and awards, such as the scholarship from the Institute of Culture and Patrimony of Antioquia in 2010 and the Iberacademy orchestra scholarship in 2016. In the same year she won the Young Talent Competition of the EAFIT Symphonic Orchestra with her performance of Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. She received acknowledgement of her artistic work from the San Vicente Ferrer History Center in 2018. The following year she was supported by the scholarship BRICC from the British Council, and recently has received support from the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust and Waverley Fund to continue with her studies at the RNCM.

She studied her bachelor’s degree in Medellin Colombia at EAFIT University under the guidance of the Colombian conductor, Alejandro Posada Gómez. In the last years she has also participated in several master class with conductors such as Mark Elder, Ludovic Morlok, Jac van Steen, Alexander Liebreich, Neil Thompson, Giancarlo Guerrero, Joseph Caballé Domenech, Simeon Pironkov, Roberto González-Monjas, Manuel Hernández Silva, Claudio Vandelli and Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Elizabeth grew up in the beautiful small town of San Vicente, Antioquia, Colombia. Her first musical experience took place when she was 11 years old, when she started playing saxophone. She loves poetry and spends time in the countryside with her family.