Barry Wordsworth (born 20 February 1948,

Worcester Park Worcester Park is a suburban town in South West London, England. It lies in the London boroughs of Sutton and Kingston, and partly in the Surrey borough of Epsom and Ewell. The area is southwest of Charing Cross. The suburb's population was ...

, Surrey, U.K.) is a British conductor. Wordsworth is Principal Guest Conductor of

the Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...

and has had a long relationship with company. He was first appointed as Assistant Conductor to the company's touring orchestra in 1972. In 1973 he became Principal Conductor of the

Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) is one of the five major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside The Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet. Founded as the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, the compa ...

and served as Music Director of the Royal Ballet from 1990 to 1995, and again from 2006 to 2015, after an intervening position with Birmingham Royal Ballet. From 1989 to 2006 he was principal conductor of the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...

, becoming conductor laureate in 2006. Since 1989 he has been Music Director and the Principal Conductor of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO). In March 2007 at Brighton, Wordsworth caused controversy when he refused to conduct Andrew Gant's new composition ''A British Symphony'' the day of its scheduled premiere. Wordsworth's discography includes works by lesser-known British composers alongside more mainstream pieces. In his career Wordsworth has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras in the UK and overseas. He has made many appearances at the BBC Proms and conducted the

Last Night of the Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert H ...

in 1993 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2003, he was the first conductor to record commercially all nine surviving movements of

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in th ...

's ballet '' Horoscope'' (only a suite of five movements had previously been recorded).

References

External links

IMG Artists agency biography of Barry Wordsworth

BBC Concert Orchestra biography of Barry Wordsworth

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wordsworth, Barry 1948 births Living people British male conductors (music) English conductors (music) People from Worcester Park Alumni of Trinity College of Music People educated at Glyn School 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century British male musicians