Conductor
Snapshots
ballet performances
A full repertoire list is available via email
The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House
State Theatre, Melbourne
Festival Theatre, Adelaide
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (World premiere of new production)
Choreographer: Graeme Murphy
Tchaikovsky's wonderful music was given an eloquent performance by the Australian Opera & Ballet Orchestra conducted by Mark Summerbell.
Sydney Morning Herald
The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra under the baton of Principal Conductor Mark Summerbell gave a satisfyingly dramatic and clear performance of Tchaikovsky's score, and one which supported the dancers.
Dance Insider
The Australian Ballet / Bangarra Dance Theatre
Sydney Opera House
State Theatre, Melbourne
Igor Stravinsky: Rites (The Rite of Spring)
Choreographer: Stephen Page
The Australian Ballet
State Theatre, Melbourne
Sydney Opera House
Robert Griffin Morgan: Mirror, Mirror (World premiere)
Choreographer: Natalie Weir
There are so many individual aspects to Mirror, Mirror to praise - not the least of them the playing of the State Orchestra of Victoria conducted by Mark Summerbell.
The Age
Conductor Mark Summerbell roused the State Orchestra of Victoria to a particularly full-bodied performance.
Herald Sun
Ravishing writing for all sections of the State Orchestra of Victoria, played stylishly under Mark Summerbell's direction.
The Australian
The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House
State Theatre, Melbourne
Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane
Graeme Koehne: 1914
Choreographer: Stephen Baynes
Graeme Koehne has produced a masterly score that both illuminates and sets the emotional tone for 1914….This is Australia’s Appalachian Spring, a ballet score that exudes warmth and beauty at a very human level…
The Australian
The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House
State Theatre, Melbourne
Elena Kats-Chernin: Wild Swans (World premiere)
Choreographer: Meryl Tankard
Soprano: Lisa Crosato (Eliza’s Aria)
Filmed for ABC Television. An excerpt of the film was used by Carnegie Hall, New York, as part of their 2022 digital curriculum materials for their Link Up: The Orchestra Moves education programme.
The Australian Ballet / Melbourne International Festival
State Theatre, Melbourne
Jules Massenet arr. Leighton Lucas: Manon
Choreographer: Kenneth Macmillan
Manon: Sylvie Guillem
Performed in the presence of Lady Deborah Macmillan
Ariel New Music Ensemble / Melbourne International Festival
Beckett Theatre, Melbourne
Peter Maxwell Davies: Vesalii Icones (Australian premiere)
Director/Choreographer: Jonathan Taylor
Solo Dancer: Patrick Harding-Irmer
Ariel New Music Ensemble / Melbourne International Festival
Stunning mix of music and dance…Taylor, Summerbell, Harding-Irmer and all concerned deserve high praise for giving us this brilliant example of music-dance-theatre.
The Age
…beautifully performed by the Ariel New Music Ensemble under Mark Summerbell, and dancer Patrick Harding-Irmer…an intriguing, seldom-seen theatrical meditation.
The Australian
Queensland Ballet
Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane
The Arts Centre, Gold Coast
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
West Australian Ballet
His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth
Felix Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (complete)
Sergei Prokofiev: The Red Shoes (World premiere)
Music from The Tale of the Stone Flower & Chout
Choreographer: Simon Dow
I invited Mark Summerbell…to conduct our seasons of A Midsummer Night' s Dream and also The Red Shoes. Mark stepped in with no warning for the May season and proved to be a warm, generous and fine musician with a sensitivity for dancers and their needs. Mark's leading of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra did them proud and our relationship with them was further strengthened.
Simon Dow, Artistic Director West Australian Ballet
Musically the performance was distinguished...Summerbell's conducting allowed Tchaikovsky's score to soar in the playing of the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sunday Mail