Sun-loving maestro Richard Hickox enjoyed an extended respite from the chilly European Winter, spending January-March ‘down under’, conducting a spectacular new production of Britten’s Billy Budd for Opera Australia in Sydney and Melbourne. He flew out shortly before the New Year in order to open the Sydney Festival in powerful performances of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, with forces from the Sydney Symphony and his own London Symphony Chorus. In between performances of Budd he scarcely found time to enjoy his beloved surf on Bondi Beach before zipping off to Brisbane for concerts with the Queensland Philharmonic and a special gala with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and long-standing friend and collaborator Bryn Terfel. Having had a huge success in December with Peter Grimes in Hamburg (he’s already invited back there in 2002), Hickox’s operatic activities continue this Spring with a revival at the refurbished Sadler’s Wells of the Royal Opera House’s award-winning Paul Bunyan. He then goes to Japan for concerts with the New Japan Philharmonic (a third visit) and returns to London for a major Elgar project in May/June with the Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall. Meanwhile Hickox’s relationship with the Spoleto Festival in Italy was further consolidated by his appointment as Music Director from 1999. This July he conducts Prokofiev’s War and Peace and Verdi’s Requiem, televised live from the Piazza del Duomo. We are also particularly delighted to announce Hickox’s promotion to Associate Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, having been Associate Conductor for many years. This reflects the continuing close relationship between Hickox and the LSO, with whom he gives 2 subscription concerts in the Barbican every season and has made numerous award-winning discs for Chandos.