WhosWho

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.

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

Widely recognised as one of the leading choral directors in
the UK, David Hill is director of music at St John's College,
Cambridge.and also the musical director of The Bach Choir
(since 1997) and the chamber choir Ikon.

Born in Carlisle in 1957 and educated at Chetham's School
of Music he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of
Organists at the age of 17. David took an organ scholarship
to St John's College, Cambridge under the direction of Dr
George Guest. Alongside organ studies with tutors including
Gillian Weir and Peter Hurford, David conducted the
University Opera Society and Cambridge University Music
Society's orchestra. He has recently been awarded an
honorary Doctorate by the University of Southampton in
recognition of his services to Music.

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), Associate Conductor and then Artistic
Director of the Philharmonia Chorus (1986-1997). In addition
he regularly gives choral training workshops and summer
schools in the UK and overseas, his handbook on the
subject Giving Voice was published in 1995 and he is a
choral advisor to music publishers Novello for whom he has
edited the carol book Noel.

He has a broad-ranging discography of over 50 recordings for
Decca/Argo, Hyperion, Naxos and Virgin Classics.
Conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,
Brandenburg Consort, City of London Sinfonia, Parley of
Instruments and BBC Singers as well as the choirs of
Westminster and Winchester Cathedrals, his recordings
cover repertoire from Thomas Tallis to John Tavener and
include the Fauré Requiem and Elgar's Dream of Gerontius.
His recording of Victoria's O Quam Gloriosum won a
Gramophone Award and the same composer's O Magnum
Mysterium, Requiem and Tenebrae Responsories are
Gramphone Critic's choices. He received a Grammy as
Chorus Master for Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.

David Hill has long-standing relationships with The
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers with
whom he has conducted a wide range of repertoire. He has
also appeared with The Sydney Symphony Orchestra,
Zagreb Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, City of London
Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, The BBC National
Orchestra of Wales and Sinfonia 21. He regularly invites The
Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra of
the Age of Enlightenment to take part in performances with
The Bach Choir and has a special relationship with the
period orchestra Florilegium for whom he conducts
orchestral and choral programmes.

His recent and future engagements include Wagner, Finzi &
Elgar with The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Mozart,
Dvorak & Beethoven at The Winchester Festival, works by
Jewish composers with Rias Kammerchor in Berlin and
Wroclaw, his BBC Proms debut with the world premiere of
Sir John Tavener's Song to the Cosmos with The Bach Choir
and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Bach St Matthew
Passion with Florilegium and Ikon, appearances with the
BBC Singers, the Netherlands Radio Choir, the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonia Orchestra as well as The Bach Choir.

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.