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Paul McCreesh, conductor

Biography

Paul McCreesh is fast becoming one of the UK’s most exciting and innovative conductors, equally at home in early and standard repertoire, on the concert platform and in the opera house.

Voted one of the top 100 Conductors of the 20th Century by Classic Music Magazine, McCreesh is the founder and Artistic Director of the period instrument Gabrieli Consort & Players, with whom he has established an outstanding international reputation for his historically-informed presentations of Renaissance and Baroque music. Having enjoyed an exclusive recording contract with DG Archiv Produktion since 1993, his numerous recordings with the Gabrieli Consort & Players have included music by Bach, Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Purcell, Schütz and an on-going series of Handel oratorios which have won international prizes, including Gramophone Awards, ABC Record of the Year, Edisons, Diapason d’Or de L’Année and the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis.

His 1997 recording of Handel's Messiah garnered superlative reviews world-wide, confirming McCreesh's status as a major new interpreter of large-scale works. This was followed in 1998 by Solomon, with an international cast of soloists led by Andreas Scholl, and in 2000, by Theodora, all heralded as the finest available recordings of these works.

Possessing extremely broad musical interests, McCreesh has over recent seasons conducted a wide range of later repertoire with modern orchestras, in the UK, Europe and the USA including works by twentieth century composers as well as the classical repertoire.

Paul McCreesh is also the founder and Artistic Director of Brinkburn Music, a unique festival established in 1994 at a 12th Century Priory in Northumberland. Brinkburn serves as a showcase for the work of Gabrieli Consort & Players and many guest ensembles as part of a rich education programme featuring young musicians of all ages.

In the 2000/1 season McCreesh made a phenomenal operatic debut at Welsh National Opera with a universally praised new production of Gluck's Orphée & Eurydice. This was followed by a new production of Britten's Albert Herring at Amsterdam and The Hague Conservatoires and debuts with both the National Symphony in Washington DC and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Other recent highlights have included a tour with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, and concerts with Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Vancouver Symphony, Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid, Minnesota Orchestra, Norwegian Opera Orchestra and Copenhagen Philharmonic.

Highlights of the 2002/3 season include a performance of the rarely heard Abraham et Isaac by Myslivecek with l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, concerts with WDR Cologne, Deutsche Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, Australian Youth Orchestra, Israel Camerata, and Orquesta Ciudad de Granada. In the opera house future plans include new productions at Welsh National Opera (Jephtha), Komische Oper Berlin (Orlando), Académie Baroque, Ambronay (Athalia) and a debut at Royal Danish Opera (The Magic Flute).

September 02/454 words

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