William Boughton has guest conducted with many of the worlds leading Orchestras from San Francisco to Helsinki.

As Founder, Artistic & Music Director with the English Symphony Orchestra, Boughton developed the orchestras repertoire through the Viennese classics to contemporary music. Together he and the orchestra built a significant discography of internationally acclaimed recordings with Nimbus Records, a number of which have reached the Top Ten in the US charts. The depth of his unique partnership with the ESO was epitomised in 1985 when, as Artistic Director of the Malvern Festival, he collaborated with Sir Michael Tippett to present a musical celebration of the composer's eightieth birthday which was the subject of a BBC "Omnibus" documentary.

Between 1986–93 Boughton was also Artistic & Music Director of the Jyvaskyla Sinfonia in Finland, an orchestra in which he developed both the personnel and the artistic programming. During his tenure in Jyvaskyla audiences grew by over 60%. He toured with the Jyvaskyla Sinfonia to Estonia & Sweden and made two recordings with them of music by Jean Sibelius.

He has worked with many leading soloists on the international circuit, including artists such as Nigel Kennedy, Leonidas Kavakos, Emmanuel Ax, Radu Lupu and Viktoria Mullova. His list of commissioned works from contemporary composers includes Peter Sculthorpe, John Joubert, Anthony Powers, Michael Berkeley, John Metcalf, Stephen Roberts and Adrian Williams among many others.

In October 1993, William Boughton was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Coventry University. In November 1995, he and the ESO presented a weekend of music celebrating the 60th birthday of English composer Nicholas Maw, marking another milestone in Boughton's championship of contemporary English music. In 1996 William Boughton commenced a second term as Artistic Director of the Malvern Festival.

His close friendship with the late Yehudi Menuhin saw Boughton and the ESO performing at his Memorial Service in Westminster Abbey on June 3rd 1999 as well as a number of memorial concerts around the world with the Sinfonia Varsovia.

In 2000 William Boughton was invited to become the Artistic Director of The Nimbus Foundation and created the Wyastone Summer Series which is based at the concert hall in the grounds of the Wyastone estate. The festival has now developed into a major attraction during the months of June and July and the BBC broadcasts a number of the performances. The calibre of artists Boughton has invited include Grigori Sokolov, Angela Hewitt, Jordi Savall, Anoushka Shankar, Dame Felicity Lott, Evelyn Glennie, George Benjamin, London Sinfonietta, Kopelman Quartet, John Lill and many more that regularly appear on the world stage.

In June 2004 William Boughton successfully launched the 1st ESO Elgar Festival in Malvern and Worcester, which included performances of both the Symphonies, Sea Pictures (Monica Groop), Cello Concerto (Natalie Clein), Violin Concerto (Ilya Gringolts), The Dream of Gerontius (Stephen Chaundy, Monica Groop and Robert Pomakov). All performances were sold out and received with enormous enthusiasm from both audiences and critics alike.

The 2005/6 was Boughton’s final Season with the ESO’s in which they together celebrated the Orchestra’s 25th Anniversary and gave a ‘Complete Beethoven Symphony Cycle’ and created a new series of pre-concert performances of British contemporary music, including Birtwistle, Knussen. Watkins, Woolrich, Holloway and Turnage. He has been re-invited to San Jose – USA and Jyvaskyla Sinfonia in Finland.

William Boughton has participated in a number of high profile arts programmes for BBC Television (Elgar - Piano Concerto and Omnibus with Sir Michael Tippett), a radio programme about Elgar which was broadcast in New York, Chicago, Washington and Boston during the Spring 2006 and presented a Series the 1st Eleven for Classic FM during the World Cup.

The 2006/7 Season heralds a number of new developments with invitations to appear with the New Haven Symphony (Connecticut), Silicon Valley Symphony (California), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in concert and recording and with the Sudwestdeutches Chamber Orchestra . He will continue as Artistic Director for Wyastone Summer Series. Boughton will spend a large part of the 2006/7 Season writing a book – ‘The Art of the Re-Creative Artist’, with input from many world famous performing artists from all genres.