Years ago, Michael Thorne earned money playing and teaching the bassoon. He spent the 1980s conducting the Cardiff Chamber Orchestra and the City of Cardiff Symphony Orchestra, as well as playing in the Spinosus Wind Quintet. In the 1990s he conducted the New Tyneside Orchestra and the Tynedale Symphony Orchestra.

He is Musical Director of the Easter Orchestral Society’s residential course – which he has conducted since 1992 – where he explores the modern symphonic repertoire including in the last few years music by Rautavaara, Lutoslawski, Messaien, Thomas Ades, Robert Simpson, Shchedrin, Panufnik, Vasks and Sallinen. As conductor and co-founder of the Edinburgh Players Opera Group, since 2001 he has completed 3 complete cycles of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde (twice), Parsifal (twice) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg followed by Der Rosenkavalier, Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Tannhäuser, Elektra and Salome and will conduct Daphne there later this year. He is also the Musical Director of the Newtown Ensemble in Edinburgh. For New Palace Opera he has conducted Ariadne auf Naxos, The Turn of the Screw, The Rape of Lucretia, Albert Herring, The Rake’s Progress, Billy Budd, and Peter Grimes, and for the Saffron Opera Group he has conducted Die Meistersinger (twice), The Rake’s Progress, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, Così fan Tutte, Tannhäuser, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and Le Nozze di Figaro – to critical acclaim (‘totally at one with the dramatic spirit and architecture’ – Seen and Heard International; ‘sure-footed conducting …meticulous preparation’ **** – The Guardian). He retired as a full time academic in 2016.