John Lubbock is an English music conductor and singer, and founder of the Orchestra of St John's Smith Square, now known as the Orchestra of St John's (OSJ), which he has brought to prominence including performances at The Proms as well as engaging in outreach and charity work.
Lubbock founded the Orchestra of St John's Smith Square in 1967. He led the orchestra on tours to Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium and the USA. He also appeared with them at the Bulgarian, Bratislava and Turku festivals in the 1980s, and in a Southern Television programme with the Labèque sisters. In August 1985 he and the orchestra took part in the premiere of Iain Hamilton’s opera Lancelot. [1]
He conducted recordings of Mendelssohn's symphony No. 3 and symphony No. 4 (ACM), Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète and Orpheus (ACM), Dvorak's and Tchaikovsky's string serenades (ASV) and of Mozart overtures (ACM). [1]
In 1985 Lubbock conducted the world premiere of a reconstruction by Philip Wilby of a Sinfonia concertante in A for the programme 'Mozart's Unfinished’. He also conducted the choral soundtrack for Doomwatch Winter Angel (1999), a feature-length television drama. [2]
During his career Lubbock has conducted six Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, between 1976 and 2006. These included world premieres (by Stephen Montague, John Harle, Benjamin Wallfisch) and Proms premieres (Lou Silver Harrison, Colin McPhee, Jerónimo Giménez and Mozart's Thamos, King of Egypt , K 345) as well as the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Yefim Bronfman, Shlomo Mintz, and Yo-Yo Ma. [3]
Sir Simon Rattle has described him as "one of our most musical assets – a thoughtful perfectionist and a musician of total integrity." [4]
He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music in July 1999. [5] He was awarded an OBE in the 2015 New Year Honours List. [6]
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The BBC SO is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Sir Colin Rex Davis was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom he was particularly associated were Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett.
Sir Neville Marriner, was an English conductor and violinist. Described as "one of the world's greatest conductors", Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ranks Marriner #14 of the 18 "Greatest and Most Famous Conductors of All Time". He founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and his partnership with them is the most recorded of any orchestra and conductor.
Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He also specialized in Czech music as a whole, producing many recordings for the Czech label Supraphon.
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.
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.
Adrian Brown is a British conductor. He is a proponent of contemporary music and has several first performances to his credit.
David Eric Robertson is an American conductor. He was chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and was formerly music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2005 until 2018. He is Director of Orchestral Studies at Juilliard.
Jennifer Elizabeth Pike is a British violinist.
Madeleine Louise Mitchell MMus, ARCM, GRSM, FRSA is a British violinist who has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in over forty countries. She has a wide repertoire and is particularly known for commissioning and premiering new works and for promoting British music in concert and on disc.
The Leeds Festival Chorus is based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has 160 singing members in soprano, alto, tenor and bass sections. Presenting classical choral music of a professional standard in Yorkshire and elsewhere, including at the BBC Proms and abroad - for example in Venice. The Chorus is broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3.
Sinfonia of London is a symphony orchestra based in London, England, conducted by John Wilson.
The Orchestra of St John's is an orchestra in the United Kingdom, founded in 1967 by John Lubbock. Originally called the Orchestra of St John's Smith Square, it was originally named after St John's, Smith Square in central London.
Raymond Yiu, born 1973; is a composer, conductor, jazz pianist and music writer.
Founded in 1956, London's Kensington Symphony Orchestra is a non-professional orchestra in Britain. It attracts non-professional players from around London for its concerts at St John's, Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and other venues in the city. Its concerts are financed through ticket sales, charitable donations and corporate support, and through subscription fees paid by members of the orchestra.
Odaline de la Martinez is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, a London-based contemporary music ensemble which she co-founded in 1976 with New Zealander flautist Ingrid Culliford, and was the first woman to conduct at the BBC Promenade Concerts in 1984. As well as frequent appearances as a guest conductor with leading orchestras throughout Great Britain, including all the BBC orchestras, she has conducted several leading ensembles around the world, including the Ensemble 2e2m in Paris; the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; the Australian Youth Orchestra; the OFUNAM and the Camerata of the Americas in Mexico; and the Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. She is also known as a broadcaster for BBC Radio and Television and has recorded extensively for several labels.
Aurora Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra, co-founded in 2004 by conductors Nicholas Collon and Robin Ticciati. The orchestra is based in London, where it is Resident Orchestra at Southbank Centre and Resident Ensemble at Kings Place. The orchestra was also previously Associate Orchestra at LSO St Luke's, and performs regularly at other venues including St George's, Bristol, the Colyer-Fergusson Hall in Canterbury, and The Apex in Bury St Edmunds. It has developed a particular reputation for creative programming and concert presentation, including pioneering memorised performance as a regular feature of its artistic output. Since its launch in 2005, it has worked with artists ranging from Ian Bostridge, Brett Dean, Anthony Marwood and Sarah Connolly to Edmund de Waal, Wayne McGregor and Björk.
Brighton Festival Chorus is a large choir of over 150 amateur singers based in Brighton, UK. One of the country's leading symphony choruses.., and considered "one of the jewels in the city's musical crown", BFC performs in major concert halls throughout Britain and Europe, particularly in Brighton and London.
This is a summary of the year 2017 in British music.
Grace-Evangeline Mason is a British composer of contemporary classical music.