Roger Norrington

Sir Roger Norrington
Birth name	Roger Arthur Carver Norrington
Born	16 March 1934 Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Genres	Classical
Occupation(s)	Conductor
Years active	1962–present

Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington (born 16 March 1934) is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington.

Norrington studied at The Royal Conservatory of Music^[1] in Toronto, Dragon School, Oxford, Westminster School, Clare College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music under Adrian Boult among others. Norrington played the violin, and worked as a tenor through the 1960s, and in 1962 founded the Schütz Choir (later the Schütz Choir of London).

From 1969 to 1984, Norrington was music director of Kent Opera. In 1978, he founded the London Classical Players and remained their musical director until 1997. From 1985 to 1989, he was Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta. He is also president of the London Philharmonic Choir and the Oxford Bach Choir. In the USA, from 1990 to 1994, he was music director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's. In Europe, he was principal conductor of the Camerata Salzburg from 1997 to 2006, and principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2011.^[2] He was Artistic Advisor of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society from 2006 to 2009. He is currently Principal Conductor of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra,^[3] and Chief Guest Conductor of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. He is scheduled to relinquish his Zurich Chamber Orchestra post in 2016.^[4]

Norrington is best known for historically informed performances of Baroque, Classical and Romantic music. He is a member of the historically informed performance movement. Norrington has advocated a limited or no use of vibrato in orchestral performances,^[5] which has brought him both acclaim and criticism.^[6] He has strictly followed Beethoven's original metronome markings in his symphonies, despite critical comment that these markings were "miscalculated".^[6] He has conducted recordings of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Bruckner, and Mahler on period and modern instruments.^[7] He has conducted over 50 world premieres, and has appeared regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and major orchestras throughout the world.

With his wife, the choreographer Kay Lawrence, he formed in 1984 the Early Opera Project to complement his concert work in period-style opera, beginning with Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino that year, and touring Britain in 1986.

In August 2008, Norrington appeared in the reality TV talent show-themed television series, Maestro on BBC Two, when he led the judging panel.^[8] He conducted the First Night of the Proms in 2006 and the Last Night of The Proms on 13 September 2008.^[9]

Norrington has been married twice. He and his second wife, Kay Lawrence, have a son, Tom.^[10] He was appointed OBE in 1980, CBE in 1990 and Knight Bachelor in 1997. He is a Patron of Bampton Classical Opera and the Orchestra of St Paul's. He is an Honorary Fellow of Clare College Cambridge and holds Honorary degrees from the Universities of York and Kent and an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Music.

References

1. William Littler (30 December 2011). "Sir Roger Norrington Performs Classics The Old Way". Toronto Star. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
2. Götz Thieme (25 February 2010). "Stéphane Denève soll es werden". Stuttgarter Zeitung. Retrieved 6 March 2010.
3. "Roger Norrington neuer Chefdirigent des Zürcher Kammerorchesters". Basler Zeitung. 15 January 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
4. "Daniel Hope to replace Sir Roger Norrington in Zurich". Gramophone. 2015-04-28. Retrieved 2015-05-02.
5. Roger Norrington (16 February 2003). "Time to Rid Orchestras of the Shakes". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
6. Allan Kozinn (6 August 2003). "Reading a Score, and Beethoven's Mind". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
7. John Rockwell (2 January 1994). "Norrington's Historical Trek Gathers Fresh Momentum". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
8. "Eight passionate amateurs bid to become BBC Two's Maestro" (Press release). BBC. 23 May 2008. Retrieved 24 May 2008.
9. Richard Morrison (15 September 2008). "Proms 75 & 76: Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall". The Times. Retrieved 6 March 2010.
10. He also has two offspring, Ben (b. 1966) and Amy, by his first marriage. Nicholas Wroe (21 July 2007). "Speed it up". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 6 March 2010.

External links

• A Norrington discography from the Japanese website "kanzaki.com"
• London Philharmonic Choir page
• Isobel Leybold-Johnson, "Sir Roger takes up the baton in Zurich". Swiss Info webpage article, 10 September 2010