WhosWho

Who's Who

Patron: Sir Roger Norrington

Sir Roger Norrington is a native of Oxford, England, who
studied English Literature at Cambridge and, after amateur
experience as a violinist, tenor and conductor, returned to
his studies at the Royal College of Music under Sir Adrian
Boult.

In 1962, he founded the Schütz Choir and thus began a 30
year exploration of historical performance practice that
involved concerts and recordings of mainly 17th and 19th
century repertoire. With the London Classical Players Sir
Roger gained world-wide renown for his dramatic
performances of the Beethoven symphonies on period
instruments. The recordings of these won many
international prizes

Many other ground-breaking recordings followed, not only of
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven but of a stream of 19th
century masters. His work on scores, on sound, on
orchestra size, seating and playing style, has had a growing
effect on the way 19th century music is now perceived, and
not surprisingly, he is in great demand by symphony
orchestras world-wide. He works regularly with orchestras
in Berlin, Vienna, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Paris, New York,
San Francisco, Los Angeles, and, of course, London.

Norrington's opera experience is as wide as that with
symphony orchestras, choirs and chamber orchestras. In
addition to his 15 years with Kent Opera, he has worked in
Britain at Covent Garden and the English National Opera, in
Italy at La Scala, La Fenice and the Maggio Musicale and in
Austria at the Wiener Staatsoper and the Salzburg Festival.

He is currently chief conductor of the Radio Sinfonie
Orchester in Stuttgart and of the Camerata Academica in
Salzburg. He is also closely associated with the
Philharmonia, London Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment. He lives in the Berkshire countryside
with his choreographer wife and son.

Artistic Advisor: Chris de Souza

After early experience in teaching and opera and theatre
production in Bristol, Chris de Souza joined Sadlers Wells
opera as a producer, and directed the opening production
when the company was renamed ENO.

He joined the BBC in 1975 and in 1987 became the first
producer for the BBC Proms; he also presented his own
programme on Radio 3, as well as productions on BBC TV
and BBC World Service.

He left the BBC in 1996 and is in demand as a presenter,
concert MC, public speaker and narrator and record
producer. His publications include A Child's Guide to
Looking at Music, as well as contributions to the Kingfisher
Book of Music and other symposia and articles in
newspapers and magazines.

Chris wrote the music for Maharajahs (BBC2), The Ides of
March, premiered by the Joyful Company of Sincers in 1993
and later broadcast by the BBC Singers. Remember Me for
the Purcell Tercentenary was premiered in 1995. His
arrangement of Britten's incidental music for The Rescue
was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1993 and has
since been released on CD

Chief Conductor: David Hill

Renowned for his fine musicianship, David Hill is widely respected as both a choral and orchestral conductor. His talent has been recognised by his appointments as Chief Conductor of The BBC Singers, Musical Director of The Bach Choir, Chief Conductor of Southern Sinfonia and Music Director of Leeds Philharmonic Society. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the University of Southampton in 2002 in recognition of his Services to Music.

Born in Carlisle in 1957 and educated at Chetham's School of Music, where he is now a Govenor, he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the tender age of 17. He took an organ scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge under the direction of Dr George Guest and returned to the college as Director of Music from 2003-2007. David Hill's previous posts have included Master of the Music at Winchester Cathedral (1987-2002), Music Director of The Waynflete Singers (1987-2002) Master of the Music at Westminster Cathedral, Musical Director of the Alexandra Choir (1980-87) and Associate Conductor and then Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Chorus (1986-1997). He is in great demand for choral training workshops worldwide and his handbook on the subject Giving Voice was published in 1995. He is a choral advisor to music publishers Novello, for whom he has edited a number of publications. As an organist, David Hill has given recitals in most of the major venues in the UK and has toured extensively abroad.

David Hill's broad-ranging discography of over 70 recordings, including many award-winners, can be found on the for Decca/Argo, Hyperion, Naxos and Virgin Classics labels. The discs span repertoire from the renaissance to the present day. With The Bach Choir David Hill has contributed to the film sound tracks of Kingdom of Heaven, The Chronicles of Narnia and Shrek the Third. He is engaged in a series of recordings of major English choral composers with The Bach Choir and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for Naxos.

David Hill has appeared as guest conductor with the London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Sinfonia 21, the Northern Sinfonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonqiue de Strasbourg as well as the Netherlands Radio Choir and RIAS Kammerchor, Berlin. His commitment to new music has led to him commissioning works from Judith Bingham, Carl R�tti, Francis Pott, Patrick Gowers, Jonathan Harvey, Philip Moore and Naji Hakim, Sir John Tavener and Philip Wilby amongst others.

In recognition of their long standing relationship David Hill has recently been appointed Associate Guest Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. His international career continues to develop as he looks forward to his forthcoming d�but appearance with The Minnesota Orchestra conducting Messiah.

Leader: Alexander Hohenthal

Alexander Hohenthal was born in 1969 in the Styrian town of
Bruck an der Mur. At the age of five his musical talent was
noticed and he received his first violin lessons with
Ferdinand Reiter.

He continued his studies at the Mozarteum Salzburg,
initially taking lessons with Professor Roczek. From 1989
the violin virtuoso Ruggeriero Ricci became his most
important teacher and further mentors were Lukas Hagen,
Ivry Gitis and Sandor Vegh. Alexander received his concert
diploma with distinction in 1992.

Having won prizes at various national and international violin
competitions in Tokyo, Cologne and Salzburg, the following
years saw debuts at Gidon Kremer's Lockenhaus festival,
the Salzburg Motzartwoche, in London, Birmingham, Berlin
and Washington, at the Wiener Konzerthous and
Musikverein, the Salzburger Pfingstfestspiele 1999 and,
together with Nigel Kennedy, at the opening concert at
Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Feeling equally at home in the solo and chamber music
repertoire Alexander has played with the Wiener
Streichsextett, the Zehetmair Quartett, Paul Gulda, Howard
Shelley and David Owen Norris and performed as soloist
with conductors like Fabrice Bollon, Michael Gielen, Fabio
Luisi, Giovanni Antonini and Sir Roger Norrington.

Concert appearances also feature the repertoire for
unaccompanied violin and are enthusiastically received by
experts, audiences and critics. He has made several
recordings with Musica Classic.

Alexander became leader of the Southern Sinfonia in January 2005.