ADRIAN LEAPER is an international conductor of high repute with an exceptional reputation for musical integrity, intensity and expressivity. Specialities include Spanish repertoire and large-scale romantic repertoire, in particular, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Janácek, Elgar, Dvorák and Mahler. Leaper was appointed to his present position as Director Titular of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Madrid in September 2001.

Leaper's conducting career blossomed when he was selected, via international competition in 1986, as the assistant conductor to the Hallé Orchestra, such was his success that the Hallé extended the post from the original two years to five with Leaper conducting twenty to thirty concerts each season.

In 1994 Leaper was appointed Director Titular of the Orquesta Filharmónia de Gran Canaria, a position he held for seven years. Over this time he developed the orchestra considerably and collaborated with artists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Anne-Sofie von Otter and the Labeque sisters. Many new and standard repertory works were heard for the first time under his baton, and around forty recordings have been made to date. Leaper also took the orchestra on their first two major tours of Europe visiting Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

In addition, Leaper has also had considerable success as a guest conductor throughout Europe; he has conducted all four of the major international London orchestras as well as the Moscow Symphony, Vienna Symphony and Prague Symphony and a number of the leading Radio Symphony orchestras in Ireland, England, Norway, Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. Notable successes have been an outstanding debut with the Suisse Romande Orchestra in Geneva conducting Stravinsky Rite of Spring, a studio recording of Bartók Miraculous Mandarin Suite, the Martinu St. Francisco Frescoes with the West Deutsch Rundfunk in Cologne, and Shostakovitch Symphony No. 1 with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.

Recording has played an important part in Leaper's career and his discography to date comprises approximately one hundred discs ranging from standard repertoire for Arte Nove to British rarities for Marco Polo and highly acclaimed Sibelius recordings for Naxos. Leaper currently records exclusively for ASV and is completing a series of Spanish Symphonic repertoire for ASV with the Orquesta Filharmónia de Gran Canaria.

Recent guest engagements have included appearances with Orquesta Filharmónia de Gran Canaria with whom Leaper maintains a close relationship, BBC Belfast, Orquesta Ciudad de Málaga and Real Orquesta de Galicia. Forthcoming guest engagements include WDR Köln, Orquesta Filharmónia de Gran Canaria, Mozarteum Orchester, Salzburg, Ulster Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic and further recordings for ASV.