Jeremy Backhouse
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Our Conductor
JEREMY BACKHOUSE, who became the first conductor of the Vasari
Singers in 1981, began his musical career at Canterbury Cathedral, where he
was Head Chorister, and later studied music at Liverpool University. He spent
five years as Music Editor at the Royal National Institute for the Blind,
transcribing print music into Braille, before moving to EMI Classics to work as
a Literary Editor. Since 1990, he has been working as a Consultant Editor for
EMI and other companies, and as a freelance musician.
From 1991 to 1995 he was Music Director of both the Streatham Choral
Society and the BBC Club Choir. With these choirs he conducted many of the
major works of the choral society repertoire and in doing so built close
relationships
with
Sinfonietta.
In
the
Kensington
January
1995,
Symphony Orchestra and
the
Surrey
he was appointed Chorus Master of the
Guildford Philharmonic Choir (GPC), working closely with conductors such as
Jonathan Willcocks, En Shao and Vernon Handley, as well as conducting
concerts with the choir and orchestra alike. In November 1997 he conducted a
performance of the Howells’ Hymnus Paradisi and Szymanowski's Stabat Mater
as part of the Guildford Philharmonic's subscription series, and in March 1998
a memorable performance of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. In November
1998, he conducted Orff's Carmina Burana and Lambert's Rio Grande with the
Guildford Philharmonic and in March 1999 gave a "masterly" performance
Bruckner's Mass in E minor and Mahler's Symphony No.2.
In April 1995 he conducted the BBC Singers for the first time in a programme
of music by Lennox Berkeley, broadcast on Radio 3 and has since conducted
them
in
broadcast
programmes
of
Holst
(for
the
BBC's
‘Fairest
Isle’
celebrations), Rubbra, Massenet and Delibes. Subsequent work with the BBC
Singers included a programme of music by Phyllis Tate and Arnold Bax. He has
also established a regular and close rapport directing the Kent Youth Choir
and Kent Youth Chamber Choir, with whom he toured Italy in the Summer of
1996.
Since the spring of 1998 he has worked regularly with the Brighton Festival
Chorus and from September 1998, became the Music Director of the Wooburn
Singers, only the third conductor in the distinguished 30-year history of the
choir, following Richard Hickox and most recently, Stephen Jackson.
Jeremy is a member of the Association of British Choral Directors, the
Incorporated Society of Musicians and the Royal Society of Musicians.
http://www. vasarisingers.org/conductor.htm
12/04/00