Paul McGrath (born 14 May 1964) is a British conductor and television personality best known for his involvement with prominent contemporary composers such as Jonathan Dove, Julian Grant, Michael Nyman and Judith Weir and for his role as a mentor in the BBC series A Maestro at the Opera. [1] He is the Director of Music at the University of Warwick.
McGrath was born Bromley, Kent and educated at The King's School, Canterbury, the University of Bristol, the National Opera Studio and the Royal Northern College of Music, where he held the Junior Conductor Fellow.
After working as an assistant to Sir Georg Solti at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, he made his professional debut at the Batignano Festival in L'ajo nell'imbarazzo . He became Conductor-in-Association at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in 1995. His BBC Proms début came in the summer of 1997 when he conducted Deborah Warner's staging of Arthur Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher alongside Libor Pešek.
For Jonathan Dove, Paul McGrath has conducted the world premieres of Siren Song at the Almeida Theatre in 1994 and Airport Scenes at the University of Warwick; and the Belgian Premiere of Flight at De Vlaamse Opera in 2002. [2] [3]
For Michael Nyman, Paul McGrath has conducted the British and US premieres of Man and Boy: Dada and the British and Italian premieres of Love Counts . He conducted the recordings of both of these opera for Michael Nyman Records. He also conducted the world premiere of Nyman's film score for Battleship Potemkin on 19 October 2011. He conducted the world premiere of Nyman's new cello concerto, A Sad Pavanne for these Distracted Times, and the Italian premiere of A Dance he Little Thinks Of in Catania in 2011.
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for numerous film scores, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano. He has written a number of operas, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat; Letters, Riddles and Writs; Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs; Facing Goya; Man and Boy: Dada; Love Counts; and Sparkie: Cage and Beyond. He has written six concerti, five string quartets, and many other chamber works, many for his Michael Nyman Band. He is also a performing pianist. Nyman prefers to write opera over other forms of music.
Raymond John Leppard was a British-American conductor, harpsichordist, composer and editor. In the 1960s, he played a prime role in the rebirth of interest in Baroque music; in particular, he was one of the first major conductors to perform Baroque opera, reviving works by Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Cavalli. He conducted operas at major international opera houses and festivals, including the Glyndebourne Festival where he led the world premiere of Nicholas Maw's The Rising of the Moon, the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House. He composed film scores such as Lord of the Flies and Alfred the Great.
Sir Charles Barnard Groves CBE was an English conductor. He was known for the breadth of his repertoire and for encouraging contemporary composers and young conductors.
Sir Reginald Goodall was an English conductor and singing coach noted for his performances of the operas of Richard Wagner and for conducting the premieres of several operas by Benjamin Britten.
Bramwell Tovey, is a British conductor and composer.
Michael Thompson is a British horn player. After studying at the Royal Academy of Music, Thompson was appointed Principal Horn with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra aged just 18 years. By the age of 21 he was offered positions as Principal Horn with both the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, accepting the Philharmonia position, a post he held for ten years before leaving to fulfil increasing solo and chamber music commitments.
Jonathan Dove is an English composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera, including in 1990 an 18-player two-evening adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for CBTO. He was Artistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival from 2001 to 2006.
Richard Sidney Hickox was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.
Kazushi Ōno is a Japanese conductor. He is currently music director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of New National Theatre Tokyo.
Sir Edward Thomas ("Ted") Downes, CBE was an English conductor, specialising in opera.
Norman René Del Mar CBE was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialised in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. He left a great legacy of recordings of British music, in particular Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius, and Benjamin Britten. He notably conducted the premiere recording of Britten's children's opera Noye's Fludde.
The Michael Nyman Band, formerly known as the Campiello Band, is a group formed as a street band for a 1976 production of Carlo Goldoni's 1756 play, Il Campiello directed by Bill Bryden at the Old Vic. The band did not wish to break up after the production ended, so its director, Michael Nyman, began composing music for the group to perform, beginning with "In Re Don Giovanni", written in 1977. Originally made up of old instruments such as rebecs, sackbuts and shawms alongside more modern instruments like the banjo and saxophone to produce as loud a sound as possible without amplification, it later switched to a fully amplified line-up of string quartet, double bass, clarinet, three saxophones, horn, trumpet, bass trombone, bass guitar, and piano. This line up has been variously altered and augmented for some works.
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.
Paul Goodwin is an English conductor, and former oboist.
Michael Jeffrey Shapiro is an American composer, conductor, and author.
Love Counts is a 2005 opera in two acts by Michael Nyman to a libretto by Michael Hastings.
Mark Eager is a London born conductor and former BBC National Orchestra of Wales Principal Trombone. He lives in Chelsea and Dorset, United Kingdom.
Rick Wentworth is a British film and TV composer, conductor, orchestrator and arranger.
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.
Roy Wales, BEM is a British choral, orchestral and operatic conductor, and a recipient of a British Empire Medal for Services to Choral Music in HM the Queen's 2020 New Year Honours.