English National Opera music director Edward Gardner will expand his conducting portfolio from September 2011 with the role of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra principal guest conductor. Gardner will conduct three or four weeks of CBSO concerts each season, according to his three-year contract.

“We’re delighted that Edward has agreed to join the CBSO family,” said music director Andris Nelsons. “He’s been working with us now since 2004 and there’s a special relationship between him and the orchestra that will, thanks to this appointment, have time to develop and grow to its full potential.”

Since making his 2004 CBSO debut in an all-Mozart programme, Gardner has conducted the orchestra regularly in Birmingham, Sheffield and at the Aldeburgh Festival. “Growing up as I did in Gloucester, the first orchestra I heard was the CBSO who performed regularly at the Cheltenham Town Hall, so it’s wonderful now to have this relationship,” he said.