The orchestra has no permanent conductor. Instead, the orchestra
chooses a conductor for just one concert at a time. Although some conductors
will be invited back, it will not be in the same year. This provides variety
for the audience, helps the orchestra's musical development, and makes
it more interesting for the players.
Some of our conductors whom we have asked more than once
are:
Jacques Cohen
Jacques Cohen has been a regular conductor of Hertforshire Philharmonia
since 2000. Jacques read music at Oxford where he conducted the main university
orchestra and performed several of his own compositions. When leaving
Oxford, he was awarded the Conducting Scholarship at the Royal College
of Music where he later won the Tagore Gold Medal, the College's prize
for its most outstanding student. Since then he has won several other
awards including the August Manns Conducting Prize and the Constant and
Kit Lambert Award. He took First Prize in the British Reserve Conducting
Competition and was also a prize winner in the Leeds Conductors' Competition.
He then went on to work as Assistant Conductor to the London Symphony
Orchestra and later with the Royal Philharmonic and worked closely with
Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Neville Marriner, Vernon Handley and Oliver
Knussen.
He has conducted a highly successful series of concerts in Bucharest with
Romania's premier orchestra, the George Enescu Philharmonic and has guest
conducted orchestras throughout Europe and the UK. He was for a period
Principal Guest Conductor of the Bombay Orchestra in India and is currently
Principal Conductor of the Aylesbury Orchestra and Lloyd's Choir. He has
also been Musical Director of several major opera productions and was
appointed as Music Director of the NPO in 2001.
He has recorded CD's for a variety of labels and broadcasts for radio
and television. He is also Visiting Professor of Conducting at the Royal
and Trinity Colleges of Music.
Jacques conducts an extremely wide repertoire from Monteverdi to the present
day and is a passionate advocate of music by living composers. He is also
an enthusiastic communicator and has a growing reputation for his ability
to explain music in an entertaining way and get audiences more involved
in concerts.
His many compositions include Quiet Music, which is regularly performed
by British and American orchestras;Three Nottingham Dances, commissioned
by the NPO and performed to great acclaim; a Tuba Concerto; a one-act
opera, Magic Potions; and several award winning works for choir
including his dramatic setting of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience.
His Fantasias, Canons & Fugues and the prize winning Elegy
on a Floating Chord have been performed many times in Europe and on
both sides of the Atlantic.
Visit Jacques Cohen's web site
Patrick Bailey
Anthony Weeden
Anthony studied music at both the University of Durham (1993-6) and
then the Royal College of Music (1997-1999) as a conductor.
At the end of his first year at Durham University, Anthony was appointed
conductor of the Durham University Symphony Orchestra, keeping the post
of his remaining two years. In 1997, Anthony won a scholarship to study
conducting at the Royal College of Music. He studied with Neil Thompson,
Edwin Roxburgh and John Carewe, took masterclasses with Daniele Gatti,
Jorma Panula and Gerhard Markson, and prepared the RCM Symphony orchestra
for the distinguished visits of Lorin Maazel and Daniele Gatti.
After winning the August Manns prize for conducting two years consecutively,
he then became the first ever winner of the Norman Del Mar conducting
prize in 1999, receiving one of the later Norman Del Mar's batons from
Sir David Willcocks. Soon after graduating from the Royal College of Music
in 1999, Anthony worked with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
as Orchestral Manager for a year, working behind the scenes with one of
the largest and most exciting orchestras in the country.
In March 1999 Anthony was recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3, conducting
the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra in Debussy's Prelude
a l'apres-midi d'un faune as part of the Youth Orchestra's of the
world programme, and the same year by Lyric FM appearing with the National
Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (RTE) in the National Concert Hall, Dublin,
conducting Brahms' First Symphony and then again the following year conducting
Beethoven's Eroica Symphony.
As well as working as a freelance conductor throughout the UK, Anthony
also performs internationally and has appeared in local and national television.
Orchestras he has conducted include the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Nottingham
Philharmonic Orchestra, Hertfordshire Philharmonic Orchestra, Santa Clarita
Valley Symphony (Los Angeles), and Horsham Symphony Orchestra amongst
others. He is a staff conductor and teacher at the Royal Academy of Music,
Junior Academy and also Trinity College of Music, London and is Musical
Director if the contemporary music ensemble Avenue-a.
Earlier in 2002, Anthony was a Western Europe finalist of the prestigious
Maazel/Vilar International Conducting Competition.
Visit Anthony Weeden's web site
Bjorn Bantock
"Bantock
infects the orchestra with vigour...extracting musical sensibility and
technical excellence in equal measures." THE
STRAD
[Information provided by Bjorn Bantock, June 2010]:
The conductor Bjorn Bantock has an extensive performance schedule conducting
numerous ensembles and orchestras in the United Kingdom, Europe and the
rest of the world. Some of his recent engagements include the Cape Town
Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town, the European
Bienniale in Naples, the Svanker Music Festival and the International
String Orchestra Festival in Malta with concertmaster Matthias Wollong
(Leader of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe). He also has conducted the
Watford Philharmonic Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, the Hertfordshire
Philharmonia, the Philharmonisches Kammerorchester Berlin, the Orchestra
of the Royal Conservatoire of Music in Copenhagen and the Moscow Philharmonic.
Bantock is the principal conductor for the London Chamber Strings and
the Europa Ensemble. He has recently been appointed as the principal conductor
for the St Albans Symphony Orchestra and will take up the position in
September 2010.
Now based in London, Bantock recently returned from a tour of South America performing in Chille, Argentina and Brazil. He has worked as conductor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the London Contemporary Dance School and was recently invited to conduct and give a series of lectures for the Classical Live Exhibition at the London Olympia. He is also principal conductor for the 100 piece Film Score Spectacular Orchestra.
Bantock conducts for the ASKOV and Open Strings Festivals in Denmark, the Oxford Cello School and the Alpine Summer Course in Geneva and the National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain. Bjorn is regularly invited to give master classes, most recently for Pro Corda, King's College Wimbledon, the European String Teachers Association at the Royal College of Music, the Amersham Music Festival and Crantock Bay Summer School. He also has a cello class at Cambridge University with pupils from Trinity, St John, Caius, Kings, Pembroke, Clare, and St Catharine's Colleges.
Winner of the 2003 Contemporary Music Prize, Bantock is actively involved
in the performance of contemporary music and participated in broadcasts
for BBC Radio 3, performing works by James Macmillan. Bantock has won
numerous prizes, bursaries and scholarships including first prize in the
Sir John Barbirolli competition and a full four year Associated Board
of the Royal Schools of Music International Scholarship to study at the
Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where he was also awarded
the highest performance accolade of the RNCM, a PPRNCM. Bantock studied
conducting with Colin Metters, Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy
of Music in London.
Rufus Frowde
Rufus Frowde read music at Oxford University (where he was Conductor
of the Oxford University Philharmonia, Organ Scholar of Merton College
and a tenor in Schola Cantorum). He then became Organ Scholar of Worcester
Cathedral. Following a career in teaching, Rufus took up his current post
as Organist and Assistant Director of Music at the Chapel Royal, Hampton
Court Palace. This has included playing for the Queen and accompanying
Kiri te Kanawa and José Carreras. He combined this with postgraduate
study in Choral Direction and Church Music at the Royal Academy of Music,
being awarded prizes in both disciplines.
Rufus appears on the Divine Art and Diversions labels and has participated
in workshops with the BBC Singers, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain,
the Royal Academy of Music Chamber Choir as well as conducting in the
London Master Classes under Benjamin Zander. Amongst numerous conducting
appointments he recently became Musical Director of Vivamus, a vibrant
young London-based chamber choir who perform primarily at St James's Church,
Piccadilly.
Recent performances include numerous UK cathedrals, the Royal Albert Hall,
the Spitalfields Festival, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, New Chamber Opera,
La Madeleine (Paris), Cologne Cathedral and Neresheim Abbey (Germany),
as well as Dave Brubeck's Cantata The Gates of Justice (European Premiere).
He has accompanied Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle in Rome under the
direction of Sir David Willcocks and conducted the West Forest Sinfonia
and the Centenary Chorus in a capacity performance of Verdi's Requiem
in Guildford Cathedral. He has also recently accompanied the trumpeter
Crispian Steele Perkins in a concert with the English Arts Chorale and
has just completed a tour playing continuo with the acclaimed violinist
Lara St John and the London Baroque Ensemble. He is also the regular accompanist
for The Knack Singers (a recital series for recent graduates of ENO's
training scheme 'The Knack').
