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John Wilson was born at Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, in
the north-east of England on 25 May 1972, where he can remember
always being fascinated by music. This eventually led him
to study composition and conducting at the Royal College of
Music, London, 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.
During his studies he became closely involved with the works
of Eric Coates, and one of his early public concerts with
the Sinfonia of Westminster at St John’s, Smith Square,
London (in April 1997) gave him the opportunity to salute
Coates together with another composer he greatly admires,
Robert Farnon. Subsequently he has reconstructed a number
of Farnon scores, so that they could receive fresh performances,
and he has gradually become involved more deeply in this kind
of work. In March 2003 he conducted a memorable concert of
film music at London’s Royal Festival Hall, using many
original arrangements by the legendary Hollywood arranger
Conrad Salinger, which John had to transfer to manuscripts
from film soundtracks because the original scores had long
been destroyed.
He is also a prolific arranger, and has already produced
countless orchestrations for film, radio and television. In
2000 John orchestrated Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s entire
score for the BBC production "Gormenghast", which
won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Score. Shortly thereafter
he was commissioned to orchestrate and conduct Howard Goodall’s
score for the BBC/HBO film "The Gathering Storm"
about Winston Churchill’s life in the years immediately
prior to the Second World War. Other recent film and TV work
has included Kevin Spacey’s film about the life of singer
Bobby Darin. John also enjoys a close working relationship
with Sir Paul McCartney, and has orchestrated several of his
compositions.
In the concert hall, John Wilson has conducted many of Britain’s
leading orchestras, including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic,
BBC Concert Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, English Chamber
Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Halle Orchestra,
Britten Sinfonia, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish
Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.
His recordings so far include two compact discs of the music
of Eric Coates, a collection of Scottish Orchestral Music
and several CDs for Vocalion which have gained him many new
admirers.
David Ades (August 2003)
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