User:KnightF3check/Steven Richard Lloyd-Gonzalez

Steven Richard Lloyd-Gonzalez (born 27 February 1971) is a British orchestral conductor.

Early years
Steven Lloyd-Gonzalez was born and raised in Birmingham, where he attended Blakesley Hall Infant and Junior School, Washwood Heath Comprehensive School and Cadbury Sixth Form College.

He began studying piano at the age of 6 and percussion at the age of 13.

Early career
At 14 he joined the percussion section of Birmingham Schools Concert Orchestra. He went on to make his conducting debut with this orchestra at the age of 17. He continued his musical studies at Colchester Institute and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he won the Michael Beech Conducting Award, Principal's Prize, Salveson Baton and the silver medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

Career
In 1995 he won an audition to become the assistant conductor of Royal Birmingham Junior Conservatoire, rising to chief conductor a year later. He was also a staff conductor at the senior Conservatoire, giving the first performance of the Millennium Oratorio by Andrew Downes in 2000.

In 2001 Lloyd-Gonzalez was invited to record the game soundtracks for Richard Jacques' Headhunter at Abbey Road Studios in London and Xenosaga by Yasunori Mitsuda with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the same year, he conducted performances of Keith Johnson's, It's a Beautiful Night from Here to the Trembling Stars with the Scottish Ensemble in Glasgow.

In the summer of 2001, Lloyd-Gonzalez was invited to become the resident conductor of the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra (orchestra to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos al Said). A post he remained in for the next two years.

Following on from Oman, he became the youngest ever chief conductor of Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Egypt from 2005 to 2007.

Since 2010, Lloyd-Gonzalez has been based in Germany, where he has held positions with the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, Sinfonie-Orchester Bad Nauheim and Capitol Symphony Orchestra Offenbach.

In 2022, his recording with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales of the 6th and 9th Symphonies of  Dmitri Shostakovich was released on First Hand Records. The recording was given the Le Clef Award by Res Music France for best orchestral recording of the month. Writing in his double five-star BBC Music Magazine review, David Nice wrote, "The BBC National Orchestra of Wales has never been on finer form ...", and "... the sonorous directness at the start of the Sixth is up there with the best ... and Lloyd-Gonzalez doesn't miss a trick or dynamic in Shostakovich's encylopedia of moods and contrasts."

Personal life
Lloyd-Gonzalez is a life-long fan of Aston Villa Football Club. As an 11 year-old in 1982, he was present in the crowd at the De Kuip stadium, Rotterdam, to see Villa win the European Cup against  Bayern Munich.

His great uncle also played for Aston Villa in the 1930s, and his grandfather lived on Trinity Rd, next to Villa Park. Lloyd-Gonzalez is a distant cousin of Jim Lea from the English rock band Slade.