Mark Elder was music director of the Hallé from 2000–24 and now holds the position of conductor emeritus. He was previously music director of English National Opera and principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In 2023 he took up the post of principal guest conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic. Elder has enjoyed long relationships with the London Philharmonic and London Symphony, as well as working with leading symphony orchestras throughout the world. He is a principal artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and has appeared annually at the Proms for many years, including twice for the internationally televised Last Night. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with this program.

Elder has enjoyed a long association with the Royal Opera House and has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Zürich Opera, Dutch National Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He was the first English conductor to conduct a new production at the Bayreuth Festival. From 2011 to 2019 he was artistic director of Opera Rara, with which he has made many award-winning recordings, and he has recorded a wide repertoire with the Hallé, including Wagner’s Ring cycle and Parsifal, as well as the three great Elgar oratorios.

Elder was appointed a companion of honour in 2017, knighted in 2008, and awarded the CBE in 1989. In May 2006 he was named “conductor of the year” by the Royal Philharmonic Society and he was awarded honorary membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2011. He holds the Barbirolli Chair at the Royal Academy of Music.