Shortlisted for last year’s prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society’s Conductor’s Award and still in his mid 30s, John Wilson has established an enviable reputation as a conductor, arranger and scholar,  recognised internationally as an expert in the specialist fields of light music, jazz and music for screen., as well as a passionate advocate for British music.   As a conductor John Wilson works on a regular basis with the Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish and BBC Concert orchestras and has also conducted many other leading British orchestras including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony.   He has recently been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin, has conducted the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Finland on several occasions and has also worked in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Bulgaria.   In 2007 he made his BBC Proms debut in the Royal Albert Hall, televised on BBC-2, his Australian debut in Melbourne and Adelaide and his London Philharmonic debut at the Royal Festival Hall.   He had a triumphant return to the Proms this summer conducting his own orchestra in a programme celebrating 75 years of MGM musicals, televised live on BBC-2.

He has made many recordings, most notably a series of highly acclaimed CDs with the John Wilson Orchestra on the Vocalion label.   A keen advocate of English music, his third Coates disc, Eric Coates:  London Again, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on the Avie label, featured on U.S. Tower Records’ Best of 2005  list.  His recording of orchestral works of Edward German with the BBC Concert Orchestra was released in 2005.   A CD of music by John Ireland with the Halle was released this Spring on its own label.

A prolific arranger, he has produced countless orchestrations for film, radio and television. He arranged and conducted the music for Kevin Spacey's film Beyond The Sea, the score of which was nominated for a 2006 American Grammy Award.   He enjoys a close working relationship with Paul McCartney and has orchestrated and conducted several of his compositions with the London Symphony Orchestra.   In the USA his arrangements and orchestrations have been played by the Chicago Symphony, Boston Pops, National Symphony of Washington and Cleveland orchestras.

A lifelong interest in film music led John Wilson to restore a number of classic film scores.  He accepted an enormous challenge from MGM: reconstructing the lost orchestrations of all their major musicals including High Society, Singin' in the Rain, The Band Wagon and An American in Paris.   In 2007 he gave the first European performances of the newly-restored score of Wizard of OzDublin with the RTE Concert Orchestra.   He will conduct Singin’ in the Rain with the Philharmonia in the Royal Festival Hall in Autumn 2010. with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, synchronised with the film and the first Irish performances in

Born in Gateshead on Tyneside in 1972, John Wilson studied composition and conducting at the Royal College of Music where his teachers were Joseph Horovitz and Neil Thomson. He graduated from the RCM in 1995 winning all the major conducting prizes and the coveted Tagore Gold Medal for the most outstanding student.

 

Autumn 2009