James Burton (born 1974) is a British conductor and composer. He is currently the Boston Symphony Orchestra Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. [2] He also holds the position of Director of Orchestral Activities and Master Lecturer in Music [3] at Boston University.
Born in London, Burton studied at Westminster Abbey Choir School and he became head chorister of the Choir of Westminster Abbey in 1987. He was awarded a music scholarship to Radley College, and a choral scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, where his initial interest in conducting was encouraged by Christopher Robinson. Burton holds a master's degree from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied orchestral conducting with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier. [4]
In February 2017 the Boston Symphony Orchestra appointed Burton as Choral Director, a newly created position, and Conductor of the orchestra's Tanglewood Festival Chorus. [5] He gave his Boston Symphony subscription series debut in 2018, and in April 2019 he replaced an indisposed Gustavo Dudamel to conduct a series of concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Festival Chorus at Boston Symphony Hall. [6] Burton gave his Boston Pops Orchestra debut with Holiday Pops concerts at Symphony Hall in December 2017, and his Tanglewood Festival debut was in June 2019 with a Boston Pops concert of the music of Queen with Marc Martel. [7] Burton founded the Boston Symphony Children's Choir in 2018. [8]
Burton gave his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico in 2016, and since then has been a frequent guest conductor. He led performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in the Palacio de Bellas Artes to celebrate the orchestra's 90th anniversary in 2018.
In his native UK, Burton has conducted concerts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hallé Orchestra, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra and Manchester Camerata. He has conducted opera performances at English National Opera, English Touring Opera, and Garsington Opera where he won the Leonard Ingrams award in 2008. Burton's choral conducting has included the Gabrieli Consort, the Choir of the Enlightenment and the Wrocław Philharmonic Choir. In 2017 Burton conducted the BBC Singers at the inaugural season of Dubai's Opera House as part of BBC Proms Dubai. [9] From 2002 to 2009 he was Choral Director at the Hallé Orchestra and Conductor of the Hallé Choir, winning the Gramophone Choral Award in 2009 for a recording of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius .
Burton has worked frequently with young musicians, and is currently the conductor of the Boston Symphony Children's Choir. He founded the Hallé Youth Choir in 2003, and from 2002 to 2017 he was the music director of Schola Cantorum of Oxford,[12] leading the choir on international tours, recordings on the Hyperion label[13] and appearing in BBC TV films about British composers made by John Bridcut.[14] He founded the Schola Cantorum of Oxford conducting scholarship in 2011. [10] In 2017 Burton was guest director of Japan's National Youth Choir.
Burton was music director of the St. Endellion Easter Festival from 2007 to 2013, succeeding Richard Hickox. [11]
Burton's compositions are published by Edition Peters. [12] He has received commissions from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, the National Portrait Gallery, [13] and the Exon Festival where he was composer in residence in 2015. [14] His arrangements have been played by the Boston Pops, and he orchestrated the album In Times Like These [15] for American folk singer Arlo Guthrie. [16]
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, the BSO performs most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at Tanglewood.
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart.
Seiji Ozawa is a Japanese conductor known for his advocacy of modern composers and for his work with the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he served as music director for 29 years. He is the recipient of numerous international awards.
The Tanglewood Festival Chorus, directed by James Burton, is a chorus which performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops in major choral works. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC) was organized in the spring of 1970, when founding conductor John Oliver became director of vocal and choral activities at the Tanglewood Music Center, the summer home of the BSO. Originally formed for performances at the BSO's summer home at the behest of the BSO's conductor designate Seiji Ozawa, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is the official chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra year-round, performing in Boston, New York and Tanglewood.
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
Tanglewood is a music venue and festival in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the Tanglewood Music Center, Tanglewood Learning Center, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Besides classical music, Tanglewood hosts the Festival of Contemporary Music, jazz and popular artists, concerts, and frequent appearances by James Taylor, John Williams, and the Boston Pops Orchestra.
The BBC Symphony Chorus is a British amateur chorus based in London. It is the dedicated chorus for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, though it performs with other national and international orchestras.
Klaus Hermann Wilhelm Tennstedt was a German conductor from Merseburg. Known for his interpretation of the Austro-German repertoire, especially his sympathetic approaches towards Gustav Mahler, Tennstedt is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential conductors of the late 20th century. He worked with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, world-top ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and most notably the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he was closely associated and recorded many of his celebrated recordings under the EMI label, including a cycle of Mahler's 10 symphonies.
Colin Matthews, OBE is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Noted for his large-scale orchestral compositions, Matthews is also a prolific arranger of other composer's music, including works by Berlioz, Britten, Dowland, Mahler, Purcell and Schubert. Other arrangements include orchestrations of all Debussy's 24 Préludes, both books of Debussy's Images, and two movements—Oiseaux tristes and La vallée des cloches—from Ravel's Miroirs. Having received a doctorate from University of Sussex on the works of Mahler, from 1964–1975 Matthews worked with his brother David Matthews and musicologist Deryck Cooke on completing a performance version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony.
David Thomas is an English classical bass singer, performing mostly in concert. He has performed internationally at notable concert halls and festivals.
Bernard Rands is a British-American contemporary classical composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy. He held residencies at Princeton University, the University of Illinois, and the University of York before emigrating to the United States in 1975; he became a U.S. citizen in 1983. In 1984, Rands's Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He has since taught at the University of California, San Diego, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Boston University. From 1988 to 2005 he taught at Harvard University, where he is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and professor.
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops. The center operates as a part of the Tanglewood Music Festival, an outdoor concert series and the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO).
Simon Halsey, CBE is an English choral conductor. He is the chorus director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, a position he has held since 1983, and has been chorus director of the London Symphony Chorus since 2012. He is also artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic Youth Choral Programme and the director of the BBC Proms Youth Choir, and conductor laureate of the Berlin Radio Choir. He is professor and director of choral activities at the University of Birmingham.
Andris Nelsons is a Latvian conductor who is currently the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He has previously served as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, chief conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, and music director of the Latvian National Opera.
Will Todd is an English musician and composer. He is a pianist, who performs regularly with others in his own works.
Federico Cortese has served as Music Director of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras since 1999. He is also the Music Director of the New England String Ensemble and the conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra at Harvard University. In summer 2009, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
Gavin Carr is a British conductor and baritone working with major choruses in the UK and appearing in opera and concert in the UK and around the globe.
Gregory Rose is a conductor, composer, arranger, and music director. He has conducted orchestral, choral and ensemble premieres throughout Europe and the Far East.
Grace-Evangeline Mason is a British composer of contemporary classical music.
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