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The Englisah conductor and composer, John Gibbons, studied at Queens’ College, University of Cambridge (MA Cantab in Music: 1982-1985), the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music winning numerous awards as a conductor, pianist and accompanist.
A truly versatile musician, John Gibbons has assisted many famous conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Sir Simon Rattle and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. He is a composer, arranger, project manager and has recently completed an acclaimed reduction of William Walton's opera Troilus & Cressida for Opera Theatre of Saint Lewis amd is curently working on a similar project for Boosey & Hawkes. His compositions have been heard on both Radio 3 & 4 as well as BBC Television.
John Gibbons has conducted across the world, including the Spier Festival, Cape Town, the Crested Butte Festival in Colorado and the Romanian premiere of W. Walton's First Symphony with the Georges Enescu Philharmonic. He has also given many world premieres including the Third Orchestral Set by Charles Ives, William Alwyn’s Violin Concerto, Martyr by Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik’s Christmas Kompot and Malcolm Arnold’s opera The Dancing Master.
John Gibbons has huge experience as both an operatic and orchestral conductor as well as in the choral field. He has conducted numerous productions for Opera Holland Park (June 1989-August 2007) and most of the major British orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and Ulster Orchestra. He is Principal Conductor of Worthing Symphony Orchestra (since September 1997), the professional orchestra of West Sussex, presenting concerts in the stunning acoustics of the Assembly Hall, Worthing with an array of international artists including Nicola Benedetti, Idil Biret, Julian Bliss, Julian Lloyd Webber, Lara Melda and Laura van der Heijden (2012 BBC Young Musician).
John Gibbons is a passionate advocate of greater communication with the audience and has a unique style that has drawn many plaudits from the general public. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in recognition of this approach. He works closely with composer Karl Jenkins running two national tours of Karl’s choral music in conjunction with EMI Classics. He made the official reduced orchestral version of Karl’s Stabat Mater as well as an acclaimed reduction of W. Walton's Troilus & Cressida for Opera St Louis, Missouri.
John Gibbons has recently become chairman of the British Music Society - promoting and preserving British music - and a Trustee of the William Alwyn Foundation. He is also Choral Director at Clifton Cathedral (since September 2004), Music Director of the St Albans Chamber Choir (since 2007), Music Director of Ealing Symphony Orchestra (since 1996) and artistic adviser to the Malcolm Arnold Festival, the Sussex International Piano Competition (since 2009) and the Clifton International Music Festival. He currently lives in Milton Keynes.
John Gibbons' recordings include 8 Greek Dances by Nikos Skalkottas with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the string concertos of Arthur Benjamin with the RSNO for the Dutton Epoch label, a short film score The Clandestine Marriage and Laura Rossi’s film score The Battle of Ancre (Pinewood Studios). Other film work includes a live performance of Laura Rossi’s score to the UNESCO World Heritage film The Battle of the Somme and a performance of his own score for the BFI’s presentation of the 1924 film The Open Road at London’s South Bank Centre. His new recording with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra of Bruckner's 9th Symphony - with Finale completed by Nors Josephson - is was released on the Danacord Label in early spring 2015. |
