Guest Conductors
Guest Conductor James Burton is Choral Director at the Hallé in Manchester. Later this year he will conduct performances of Messiah and Fauré Requiem at the Bridgewater Hall, as well as leading the Hallé’s annual Christmas Carol Celebrations. He gave his debut with the Hallé Orchestra and Choir in 2002, and he has prepared the Hallé Choir for frequent performances of major choral and operatic works conducted by Mark Elder. He has recently become the first Conductor of the new Hallé Youth Choir.Jamie Burton
James is also Conductor of the award-winning chamber choir SCHOLA Cantorum of Oxford. They regularly give concerts in Oxford and elsewhere around England. They recently toured Spain, and later this year will visit Mexico for the first time. Earlier this season, James conducted The Dream of Gerontius with SCHOLA, Aylesbury Choral Society and the Oxford Philomusica at the Sheldonian Theatre, and in December he conducted the world premiere of Howard Skempton’s That Music Always Round Me with the Manchester University Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. During summer 2004 he was Assistant Conductor at Garsington Opera for England’s first professional production of Tchaikovsky’s early comic opera Cherevichki.
James is Associate Conductor at the St. Endellion Festival where last season he performed Stravinsky The Soldier’s Tale. In 2001 he conducted the world premiere of James Whitbourn The Mystery of Love with Robert Tear as soloist, and in 2002 he was chorus master for Walton Troilus and Cressida conducted by Richard Hickox.
James Burton began his musical training in the Choir of Westminster Abbey where he was head chorister under Simon Preston. He studied music at Cambridge where he held a choral scholarship at St John’s College. Further studies followed at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore where he completed his Master’s Degree in orchestral and opera conducting under Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier.
James is Guest Conductor of the National Youth Choir, and in April 2004 conducted at the 21st Birthday concert in Birmingham Symphony Hall. He was a choir member 1990-1994, and was the Alto 2 section leader and a founding member of Laudibus.
