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Oxford Bach Choir
The Oxford Bach Choir is an amateur choir based in Oxford, England. Founded by Basil Harwood in 1896 to further the music of J.S. Bach in Oxford, the Choir merged in 1905 with the Oxford Choral & Philharmonic Society, whose origins can be traced back to 1819. Oxford Bach Choir therefore has a choral tradition which extends back over two centuries. The Choir performs most of its concerts in the Sheldonian Theatre (designed by Sir Christopher Wren) in central Oxford, but also performs in St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford, located on the Iffley Road. Overview The Oxford Bach Choir is a large mixed-voice choir, with around 120 members. The range of music covered is diverse, from the works of Bach and the classical repertoire to contemporary works. Oxford Bach Choir has always had a mix of town and gown singers. Rehearsals and concerts are scheduled so that students, academics and professionals are all able to participate in the Choir's programmes. The Choir enjoys good relation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheldonian Theatre Interior, Oxford, UK - Diliff
Sheldonian Theatre, located in Oxford, England, was built from 1664 to 1669 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, chancellor of the University at the time and the project's main financial backer. It is used for music concerts, lectures and University ceremonies, but not for drama until 2015 when the Christ Church Dramatic Society staged a production of ''The Crucible'' by Arthur Miller. History What came to be known as the Sheldonian Theatre was Wren's second work and was commissioned by Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury. With the triumph of the Restoration and with it the Church of England, Dean Fell, Vice-Chancellor of the University, sought to revive a project proposed in the 1630s by the late William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury: a separate building whose sole use would be graduation and degree ceremonies. In the past these increasingly rowdy occasions had taken place in the University Chur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Mozart Players
London Mozart Players (LMP) are a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. LMP are the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom. Since 1989, the orchestra has been Resident Orchestra at Fairfield Halls, Croydon. History Beginnings The orchestra was formed in 1949 by violinist Harry Blech. Having just branched out into conducting, he was approached by pianist Dorothea Braus to arrange and conduct an all-Mozart concert at Wigmore Hall. Blech continued to arrange and perform increasingly successful concerts with the London Mozart Players, which lead to regular broadcasts by the BBC. The orchestra performed in the opening week's events at the Royal Festival Hall in 1951and became regulars there and later at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Later history and present day to perform works of Mozart and Haydn, the London Mozart Players is the UK's longest established chamber orchestra. Musicians associated with the Players include James Galway, Felicity Lott, Jane Gl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vera Brittain
Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir ''Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the First World War and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism. Life and work Born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Brittain was the daughter of a well-to-do paper manufacturer, (Thomas) Arthur Brittain (1864–1935) and his wife, Edith Mary (Bervon) Brittain (1868–1948). Her father was a director of family-owned paper mills in Hanley and Cheddleton. Her mother was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, the daughter of an impoverished musician, John Inglis Bervon. When she was 18 months old, her family moved to Macclesfield, Cheshire, and ten years later, in 1905, they moved again, to the spa town of Buxton in Derbyshire. Growing up, her only sibling, her brother Edward, nearly two years her junior, was her closest companion. From the age of 13, she atten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1924. When the British Broadcasting Corporation appointed him director of music in 1930, he established the BBC Symphony Orchestra and became its chief conductor. The orchestra set standards of excellence that were rivalled in Britain only by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), founded two years later. Forced to leave the BBC in 1950 on reaching retirement age, Boult took on the chief conductorship of the LPO. The orchestra had declined from its peak of the 1930s, but under his guidance its fortunes were revived. He retired as its chief conductor in 1957, and later accepted the post of pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Cleobury
Nicholas Cleobury (born 23 June 1950) is an English conductor. Cleobury was organ scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, conductor of Schola Cantorum of Oxford and held assistant organist posts at Chichester Cathedral and Christ Church, Oxford before turning to orchestral and operatic work. He is founder-laureate of the Britten Sinfonia and has been particularly active in the promotion of contemporary music. He was from 1997 to 2015 principal conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir. Cleobury's elder brother Stephen was director of music at King's College, Cambridge. Cleobury joined the Queensland Conservatorium Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (formerly the Queensland Conservatorium of Music) is a selective, audition based music school located in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and is part of Griffith University. History The Conservatori ... as head of opera in 2016. References External linksNicholas Cleobury web site(accessed May 2006) 2001 1950 bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Robinson (musician)
Christopher John Robinson (born 20 April 1936) is an English conductor and organist. After being organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1963 he became Organist and Master of the Choristers at Worcester Cathedral. He was conductor of the City of Birmingham Choir between 1964 and 2002. In 1974, he became Organist and Choirmaster at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, a position he held until 1991. He conducted the Oxford Bach Choir from 1976 to 1997. He became Organist and Director of Music at St John's College, Cambridge in 1992, leading the choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ... there until his retirement in 2003. From 2015 to 2018, he was Mentor to the Organ Scholars at Downing College, Cambridge. References External links Biography of Christopher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Preston
Simon John Preston (4 August 1938 – 13 May 2022) was an English organist, conductor, and composer. 23 May 2022. Retrieved 24 May 2022. ttps://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-news/abbey-mourns-former-organist-and-master-of-the-choristers-1 Westminster Abbey, "Abbey mourns former Organist and Master of the Choristers" 16 May 2022. Retrieved 24 May 2022. Family and education |
Jack Westrup
Sir Jack Westrup (26 July 190421 April 1975) was an English musicologist, writer, teacher and occasional conductor and composer. Biography Jack Allan Westrup was the second of the three sons of George Westrup, insurance clerk, of Dulwich, and his wife, Harriet Sophia née Allan. He was educated at Dulwich College, London 1917–22, and at Balliol College, Oxford. He first read classics in which he gained first class honours in moderations (1924) and second class honours in ''literae humaniores'' (1926). He gained his B.Mus. degree in 1926, and a Master of Arts in 1929. He took an active part in music in the university as a keyboard and brass player. With an Italian expatriate Arundel del Re, he co-founded the Oxford University Opera Club while still an undergraduate, and was later its conductor. The club had a policy of producing works in English and used its funds to hire professional singers and conductors. In 1925, with William Henry Harris, he staged the first complete per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sydney Watson
Sydney Watson (3 September 1903 – 17 February 1991) was an English church musician who was the organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir from 1955 to 1970. Biography Watson was born in Denton, Lancashire. He attended Warwick School, before studying at the Royal College of Music (RCM) and Keble College, Oxford, graduating with a BA in 1925, a B.Mus in 1926, an MA in 1928, and a D.Mus in 1932. He then took up a position at Stowe School, Buckingham, followed by appointments as music master at Radley College, Oxfordshire, organist at New College, Oxford, from 1933 to 1938, and musical director at Winchester College, from 1938 until 1945. He moved to become precentor at Eton College, leaving in 1955 to take up a post as music lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, and organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford—posts he held until 1970. He was professor of organ at the RCM from 1946 to 1971, and conducted the Oxford Bach Choir between 1955 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Armstrong (musician)
Sir Thomas Henry Wait Armstrong (15 June 1898 – 26 June 1994) was an English organist, conductor, composer and educationalist. He was from a musical family and his early career was as a church and cathedral organist. From the 1920s onwards he was a broadcaster for the BBC giving talks as well as playing. While organist and faculty member of Christ Church, Oxford Armstrong combined academic work with practical musicianship, as player and conductor. From 1955 to 1968, he was principal of the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), London, where he was known for his concern for the well-being of his staff and students and his efforts to strengthen links with overseas music colleges. Life and career Early years Armstrong was born in Peterborough, the eldest of three children, and only son, of Amos Ebenezer Armstrong (1878–1950) and his wife Elizabeth Annie West, née Handford (1880–1939). His mother was a former headmistress, and his father was a leading figure in Peterborough's m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Henry Harris
Sir William Henry Harris (28 March 1883 – 6 September 1973) was an English organist, choral trainer and composer. Early life and education Harris was born in Fulham, London and became a chorister at Holy Trinity, Tulse Hill. At the age of 14, he took up a "flexible" position as assistant organist at St David's Cathedral in Wales under Herbert Morris, followed at 16 by a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. His teachers there were Sir Walter Parratt, Charles Wood, and Henry Walford Davies. Career Harris was organist at St Augustine's Church, Edgbaston from 1911 to 1919 and concurrently assistant organist at Lichfield Cathedral. During this time he also taught at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in collaboration with Granville Bantock. A move to Oxford in 1919 saw him take up organist positions successively at New College and in 1929 Christ Church, Oxford. While at Oxford, he conducted the Oxford Bach Choir (1925-1933) and was instrumental in founding and condu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Allen (conductor)
Sir Hugh Percy Allen (23 December 186920 February 1946) was an English musician, academic, and administrator. He was a leading influence on British musical life in the first half of the 20th century. Early life and education Hugh Allen was born in Reading, Berkshire, the youngest of seven children of John Herbert Allen (1834–1905), who worked for biscuit makers Huntley & Palmer, and Rebecca (1836–1919), daughter of Samuel Bevan Stevens, of the firm of Huntley, Bourne & Stevens, which manufactured tins for Huntley & Palmer. His musical talent was apparent from an early age, and at 11 he was organist of a local parish church. He was educated at Kendrick School, Reading, and won an organ scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating BA from Cambridge in 1895. He became cathedral organist at St Asaph Cathedral and then Ely Cathedral, before, in 1901, becoming organist of New College, Oxford, where he revitalised the musical life of the University.''The Times'', 21 F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
