Born of Irish & Sri Lankan parentage and raised in South London, Gerry Cornelius trained to be a musician at Durham University, Royal Academy of Music London and finished in the class of Ilya Musin at the St Petersburg Conservatory.

While his roots are in firmly in opera, throughout his career he has been unashamedly active in all the main musical and theatrical genres. This has brought about longstanding and fruitful associations with a very broad spectrum of ensembles, arts companies and education institutions in the UK and abroad.

In mainstream opera he has worked for many theatres, festivals and theatre companies across the UK and Europe. His work in contemporary music and opera has resulted in close associations with some of the greatest living composers, most notably George Benjamin and Judith Weir.

In 2021 Gerry was appointed music director of English Touring Opera. ETO’s mission to take the broadest repertoire to large and diverse audience across the entire country aligns with his own values and vision for the future of opera and he is proud to lead the musical team for the company.

Alongside his work in opera, he has conducted some of the world’s great ballet and dance companies. Most recently with San Francisco and Hong Kong Ballets. He was for five years the Principal Guest Conductor with English National Ballet and amongst the many highlights of that time are Pina Bausch’s Sacre du printemps and Akram Khan’s Giselle & Creature.

In the UK he has appeared as guest conductor with English National Opera, Royal Opera House Linbury, The Opera Group, Tête à tête, Welsh National Opera, the Hallé, London Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta and Birmingham Music Group, and while abroad with the Bolshoi in Moscow, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Opera Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Festival d’Automne Paris, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and MusikFabrik Cologne.

For eight years Gerry was the Head of Music and Associate Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Elsewhere in education he has been a visiting musician at Trinity Laban, RAM and RCM conservatories in London and also at Goldsmiths and Cambridge universities.