Kenneth Montgomery, the Ulster Orchestra's Principal Conductor and formerly its Principal Guest Conductor, was born in Belfast and studied at the Royal College of Music in London where he was a pupil of Sir Adrian Boult. He continued his studies in Hamburg with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, in Siena with Sergiu Celibidache and with Sir John Pritchard. He began his career with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the English National Opera (then known as Sadler's Wells Opera). In 1973 he was appointed musical director of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta and two years later musical director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. That same year he made his début at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, conducting Le nozze di Figaro. Following his début with the Nederlandse Opera in Cavalli's L'Ormindo in 1970, Kenneth Montgomery quickly made a name for himself in the Netherlands. In 1975 he was appointed principal conductor of the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra (the Omroep Orkest, later the Radio Symfonie Orkest) and subsequently of the Dutch Radio Choir (the Groot Omroepkoor) as well. He conducted a large number of broadcast performances for the Dutch radio during his many years with the Orchestra and Choir.

Kenneth Montgomery is also well-known internationally for his work as a regular guest conductor with the main orchestras in Paris, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), and orchestras in the UK, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the USA (Detroit, Baltimore, Houston, Minneapolis and San Antonio). His work in opera covers a wide repertory, ranging from baroque to contemporary music theatre. His regular appearances with the Netherlands Opera include operas by Ravel, Falla, Janáček and Humperdinck. In addition to his many international guest appearances at opera houses in the USA (San Diego, Baltimore and Santa Fe, where he was Acting Music Director last year), Canada (Toronto and Vancouver), Australia (Australian State Opera, Adelaide), France (Opéra de Paris and Marseille), Belgium (Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels) and Italy, where he conducted Handel's La Resurrezione with great success at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Kenneth Montgomery has held a number of established opera posts. In 1985 he was appointed artistic and musical director of Opera Northern Ireland and in 1991 he was made director of opera studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where a chair in opera studies was set up in his name. When a new Opera Academy was created from the opera departments of The Hague and Amsterdam conservatories, he was appointed its first artistic director. Kenneth Montgomery continues to give conducting masterclasses at the Royal Conservatory.

Many of his recordings have been issued on CD.