Meet the 28-year-old conductor leading Shrewsbury Symphony Orchestra

Bedwyn Lloyd-Phillips, 28, is stepping into his first professional opera conducting role while building momentum in the region’s classical scene. In an interview, he traces his path from a childhood in rural Wales near Bala Lake, where his grandfather gave him a copper pipe to blow “raspberries,” sparking his interest in the trumpet. He joined the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra as a trumpeter in sixth form, later citing BBC Proms 2013 as the moment he decided he wanted to conduct after watching Yannick Nézet-Séguin lead Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. He has deputised with Blackburn Symphony Orchestra and led concerts there. Over the next two terms he plans work with Shrewsbury, Wrexham, Blackburn and Chester orchestras, while also serving as principal conductor of Shropshire Chamber Orchestra.