Former Oxford High School pupil Sian Edwards, the first woman to conduct the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, is to perform in Oxford next week.

Sian, who streaked naked through a school assembly, is due to appear at the Apollo Theatre on November 10 and 13 at 7.15pm to conduct The Bartered Bride with Glyndebourne Touring Opera.

Described as one of Britain's leading young conductors, Sian has taken up numerous engagements with leading orchestras and opera houses at home and abroad - including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as the first woman conductor.

She has also worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharm- onic.

Sian was born in Sussex and attended Oxford High School where she took up the French horn and later the horn.

She shocked the end of term assembly at the girls' high school into silence on the day she left when she streaked naked through the main hall. Sian started conducting in 1977. After graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, she studied with the late Ilya Musin at the St Petersburg State Conservatory before winning the inaugural International Leeds Conductors competition in 1984.

Sian made her debut with Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1987 conducting La Traviata and later performances of L'Heure Espagnole and L'Enfant et les Sortileges.

Future plans include concerts throughout Germany as well as with the London Mozart Players and the Ulster Orchestra and other operatic engagements. Her many recordings include widely acclaimed performances of Tchaikovsky works with the London Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

For more information about tickets contact the Apollo Theatre on 01865 243041.

Story date: Saturday 06 November

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