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Roger Norrington

Roger Norrington

Overview
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (born 16 March 1934) is a British conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors.-Nomenclature:...

. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington
Arthur Lionel Pugh Norrington
Sir Arthur Lionel Pugh Norrington , was a publisher, President of Trinity College, Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and originator of the Norrington Table.-Life:...

 and the brother of Humphrey Thomas Norrington
Humphrey Thomas Norrington
Humphrey Thomas Norrington OBE is the second son of Sir Arthur Norrington, who was known to his friends as "Thomas", and devised the Norrington Table. He is also the brother of Sir Roger Norrington....

.

Norrington studied at the Dragon School
Dragon School
The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877. The school accepts pupils from the age of 8 through to 13 , although an associated 'pre-prep', Lynams, accepts children from age 4 to the age of 8...

, Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools,, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college...

, Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on the "the Backs"...

 and the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire located in the South Kensington district of London, England.-Background:The Royal College of Music's building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, is situated on Prince Consort Road in the district of South Kensington, next to Imperial College, directly...

 under Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor.-Biography:Boult was born in Chester and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. As a schoolboy, he attended Sir Henry Wood's Saturday afternoon and Sunday concert series, seeing Debussy and Arthur Nikisch conduct...

 among others.

Norrington worked as a tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 through the 1960s, and in 1962 founded the Schütz Choir (later the Schütz Choir of London). From 1969 to 1984, he was music director of Kent Opera
Kent Opera
Kent Opera was a British opera company in the period 1969-1989. Based in Ashford, England the Company presented its productions in several centres mainly in the southern part of England. These included The Orchard Theatre, Dartford, the Assembly Halls, Tunbridge Wells, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury,...

.
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Encyclopedia
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (born 16 March 1934) is a British conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors.-Nomenclature:...

. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington
Arthur Lionel Pugh Norrington
Sir Arthur Lionel Pugh Norrington , was a publisher, President of Trinity College, Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and originator of the Norrington Table.-Life:...

 and the brother of Humphrey Thomas Norrington
Humphrey Thomas Norrington
Humphrey Thomas Norrington OBE is the second son of Sir Arthur Norrington, who was known to his friends as "Thomas", and devised the Norrington Table. He is also the brother of Sir Roger Norrington....

.

Background


Norrington studied at the Dragon School
Dragon School
The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877. The school accepts pupils from the age of 8 through to 13 , although an associated 'pre-prep', Lynams, accepts children from age 4 to the age of 8...

, Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools,, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college...

, Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on the "the Backs"...

 and the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire located in the South Kensington district of London, England.-Background:The Royal College of Music's building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, is situated on Prince Consort Road in the district of South Kensington, next to Imperial College, directly...

 under Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor.-Biography:Boult was born in Chester and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. As a schoolboy, he attended Sir Henry Wood's Saturday afternoon and Sunday concert series, seeing Debussy and Arthur Nikisch conduct...

 among others.

Career


Norrington worked as a tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 through the 1960s, and in 1962 founded the Schütz Choir (later the Schütz Choir of London). From 1969 to 1984, he was music director of Kent Opera
Kent Opera
Kent Opera was a British opera company in the period 1969-1989. Based in Ashford, England the Company presented its productions in several centres mainly in the southern part of England. These included The Orchard Theatre, Dartford, the Assembly Halls, Tunbridge Wells, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury,...

. In 1978 he founded the London Classical Players
London Classical Players
The London Classical Players was a British orchestra that specialized in music following historically informed performance practices and orchestral performances on period musical instruments. Sir Roger Norrington founded the LCP in 1978. From 1978 to 1992, the concertmaster of the London...

 (led by baroque violinist John Holloway
John Holloway (musician)
John Holloway is a British baroque violinist, currently based in Dresden, Germany. John Holloway was a pioneer of the early music movement. He was the concertmaster for many years of Andrew Parrott's Taverner Players, as well as Sir Roger Norrington's London Classical Players...

) and remained their musical director until 1997. From 1985-1989 he was Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta
Bournemouth Sinfonietta
The Bournemouth Sinfonietta was a chamber orchestra founded in 1968 as an off-shoot of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.-Formation:The orchestra was initially conducted by George Hurst, who acted as artistic adviser, and Nicholas Braithwaite, in order to perform the classical repertoire in the...

. From 1990 to 1994, he was music director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's
Orchestra of St. Luke's
The Orchestra of St. Luke's is an American chamber orchestra based in New York City.It was founded in the summer of 1978 or 1979 at the Caramoor International Music Festival in Katonah, New York....

. In 1998, he became principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Stuttgart in Germany. The ensemble was founded in 1945 by American occupation authorities as the orchestra for Radio Stuttgart, under the name Sinfonieorchester von Radio Stuttgart...

. He became Artistic Advisor of the Handel and Haydn Society
Handel and Haydn Society
The Handel and Haydn Society is a chorus and period instrument orchestra in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1815, it is one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States...

 in 2006.

Norrington is best known for performances of Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of European classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1750. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical era...

, Classical and Romantic music
Romantic music
Romantic music is a musicological term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in European music history, from about 1800 to 1900....

 using period instruments and period style. He is a member of the historically informed performance
Historically informed performance
Historically informed performance is an approach, or movement, in the performance of classical music...

 movement. Norrington has advocated a limited use of vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect, produced in singing and on musical instruments by a regular pulsating change of pitch, and is used to add expression and vocal-like qualities to instrumental music...

 in orchestral performances, which has brought him both acclaim and criticism. He has followed Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...

's metronome markings in his symphonies, some of which are thought by most conductors to be too quick to be practicable throughout the whole length of movements. He has conducted recordings of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Berlioz, and Brahms on period instruments..

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

In August 2008 Norrington appeared in the reality TV
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors...

 talent show
Talent show
A talent show is an event where contestants perform acting, singing, dancing, acrobatics,drumming, martial arts and other activities to showcase a unique form of talent, often for some sort of reward. Some very early known works include Shakespeare plays held in courtyards for the community to...

-themed television series, Maestro
Maestro (TV series)
Maestro was a 2008 reality TV talent show-themed television series produced by the BBC's Classical Music Department in the United Kingdom...

on BBC Two
BBC Two
...

, when he led the judging panel. He conducted the Last Night of The Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London...

 for the first time on 13 September 2008.

Honours


Norrington was made an OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...

 in 1980, a CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...

 in 1990 and a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...

 in 1997.

External links