William Lai will direct a new score by Peter Salem in the Northern Ballet production of Gentleman Jack

Photo: Karol Fatyga

Changing Faces

Northern Ballet awards first conducting fellowship

Arts Professional
2 min read

Northern Ballet have chosen WILLIAM LAI as the recipient of their conducting fellowship, which will see him conduct the live orchestra for Gentleman Jack performances across the UK, running from February to September this year.

Announced in late 2025, the Leeds-based dance company’s fellowship was designed to offer early-career conductors “hands-on experience and mentorship” with a touring professional ballet company and is supported by the Jerwood Foundation.

Northern Ballet has previously come under fire after announcing a “strategic partnership” with Opera North that would see its dancers perform alongside the Orchestra of Opera North instead of its own Sinfonia in 2024.

“Serious financial trouble” in 2023, resulting in an organisational review to create a “leaner, more agile structure”, meant the company had begun to use recorded music on some tour dates.

Lai currently serves as the principal conductor of the Gramophone Orchestra in Hong Kong and was the Orchestra Prize winner of the fifth International Conducting Competition of the University of Almería in Spain.

He was also a finalist in Germany’s conducting programme Forum Dirigieren.

Receiving mentorship from associate conductor DANIEL PARKINSON and artistic director FEDERICO BONELLI, Lai will “develop the skills, insight and confidence required for a future career in conducting for ballet”.

Parkinson said that after a “competitive audition process”, he was “delighted” that Lai had been selected.

“This scheme marks an exciting step in Northern Ballet’s continued commitment to nurturing emerging artistic talent,” he said. “I look forward to supporting and mentoring William as we produce our next full-length ballet, Gentleman Jack.”

Lai said he was “genuinely excited” to join the ballet company, adding that he had “always felt a deep pull towards ballet conducting”.

“Working alongside Daniel Parkinson and Federico Bonelli on a production of this scale is exceptional and I hope our audiences will feel the same spark that drives us: to create something truly extraordinary.”