JOHN WILSON

Condutor of Nottingham Classics concert in November 2008 with the CBSO and Nottingham Harmonic Society in which the main choral work was Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony.

Still in his early 30s, John Wilson has established an enviable reputation as a conductor, arranger and scholar and is now recognised internationally as an expert in the specialist fields of light music, jazz and music for screen.

As a conductor John Wilson works on a regular basis with the Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish and BBC Concert orchestras and has also conducted many other leading British orchestras including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic and the Royal Scottish National. He is a frequent guest conductor in Europe: recent visits have taken him frequently to the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin, several times to the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Finland and to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Bulgaria. His made his Australian debut in Melbourne and Adelaide in June, his BBC Proms debut in the Royal Albert Hall in July, televised on BBC-2, and his London Philharmonic debut at the Royal Festival Hall this Autumn.

A prolific arranger, he has produced countless orchestrations for film, radio and television. He arranged and conducted the music for Kevin Spacey's film Beyond The Sea, the score of which was nominated for a 2006 American Grammy Award. He enjoys a close working relationship with Paul McCartney and has orchestrated and conducted several of his compositions with the London Symphony Orchestra. In the USA his arrangements and orchestrations have been played by the Chicago Symphony, Boston Pops, National Symphony of Washington and Cleveland orchestras.

A lifelong interest in film music led John Wilson to restore a number of classic film scores. He accepted an enormous challenge from MGM: reconstructing the lost orchestrations of all their major musicals including High Society, Singin' in the Rain, The Band Wagon and An American in Paris. In January he gave the first European performances of the newly-restored score of Wizard of Oz with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, synchronised with the film and will conduct the first Irish performances this Christmas in Dublin with the RTE Concert Orchestra..

Born in Gateshead on Tyneside in 1972, John Wilson studied composition and conducting at the Royal College of Music where his teachers were Joseph Horovitz and Neil Thomson. He graduated from the RCM in 1995 winning all the major conducting prizes and the coveted Tagore Gold Medal for the most outstanding student.