Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington,
CBEThe 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
conductorConducting 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 NorringtonSir 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 NorringtonHumphrey 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 SchoolThe 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 SchoolThe 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, CambridgeClare 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 MusicThe 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 BoultSir 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
tenorThe 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 OperaKent 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,...
.
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington,
CBEThe 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
conductorConducting 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 NorringtonSir 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 NorringtonHumphrey 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 SchoolThe 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 SchoolThe 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, CambridgeClare 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 MusicThe 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 BoultSir 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
tenorThe 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 OperaKent 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 PlayersThe 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 HollowayJohn 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 SinfoniettaThe 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'sThe 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 OrchestraThe 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 SocietyThe 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
BaroqueBaroque 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 musicRomantic 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 performanceHistorically informed performance is an approach, or movement, in the performance of classical music...
movement. Norrington has advocated a limited use of
vibratoVibrato 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 BeethovenLudwig 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 TVReality 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 showA 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,
MaestroMaestro 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
, when he led the judging panel. He conducted the Last Night of
The PromsThe 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
OBEThe 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
CBEThe 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 BachelorThe 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