JAN Latham-Koenig describes himself as a “Russian salad of racial genes”. Born and brought up in London, his father was French and his mother Danish-Polish. There’s also a smattering of Mauritian in the mix.

No wonder that he is an internationalist in outlook. His is an intense life, with nine months a year spent on the road as globetrotting guest operatic and orchestral conductor, and posts as artistic director of The Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Filharmonica de la UNAM in Mexico and the Novaya Opera in Moscow. He is the first Briton to hold such a pivotal role in any Russian opera company.

His operatic debut was with Macbeth at the Vienna State Opera in 1988, and he was appointed their permanent guest director in 1991.

It’s just as well that Latham-Koenig slips easily between English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian when rehearsing musicians. He’s also well qualified to talk about the contrasting ways of orchestras across the globe.

“For instance, in more western countries, musicians have great self-discipline and a ‘we’re all in it together’ attitude, seeing themselves and the conductor as working together as a group. In Eastern Europe you are only respected if you are an authoritarian figure.”

He began learning the piano at four years old (“taught by a bluff Yorkshireman called Albert Hepton”), and at seven took to the violin. He went on to play in the National Youth Orchestra and studied at the Royal College of Music.

He’d set his sights on conducting by the age of 17, but realised he needed to be an experienced practical musician first, in order to understand the capabilities of different instruments. He was an in-demand professional pianist when he formed the Koenig Ensemble in 1976 in order to be able to conduct.

He went on to win the coveted Gulbenkian Fellowship in 1981 and conducted the Ensemble at Harrogate in 1979.

As any conductor will tell you, it’s a lonely career - and one which you can only learn about and improve at by doing it for real - no practising in the mirror.

Every conductor feels the music differently, says Latham-Koenig, and no amount of watching your idols (his all-time favourite is the German Wilhelm Furtwangler) can teach you.

“You have to have quite a dominant personality to stand up in front of 100 musicians, an extraordinary desire to communicate your understanding of the music and the emotion it evokes in you, and a highly analytical ear. You need many, many skills - but who has them all?”

He believes that physical fitness if important and slots running, swimming and the gym into his tight schedule. “It helps your mental acuity, and gives the strength and total control of your body that you need. ”

What would improve his life as a conductor? “A device that disables electronic equipment inside music venues, so that members of the audience can’t play with their phones.”

n The Flanders Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig with Freddy Kempf at the piano, will perform Schubert, Franck, Chopin and Brahms at Harrogate Royal Hall, at 8pm on Sunday, July 26. Box office: 01423-562303 or harrogateinternationalfestivals.com