Here's the lowdown on the great British conductor John Wilson, who has earned huge admiration across the classical music industry for his work across a wide range of musical repertoire.
On the one hand, Wilson has proved himself a brilliant conductor of classical music from England's early 20th-century golden age. Holst, Delius, Vaughan Williams and Elgar are right in his wheelhouse.
His disc of English orchestral music, with his Sinfonia of London, took the Orchestral category at the 2024 BBC Music Magazine Awards. In fact, that wonderful recording, featuring among other things a revelatory recording of Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia, went on to win our Recording of the Year.
On the other hand, Wilson is also a superb conductor of light music, sounds from Hollywood's Golden Age, and songs from the musicals. He cropped up again in our 2024 Awards, in fact, winning the Opera category for a fabulous recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein's stage musical Oklahoma!.
Who is John Wilson?
John Wilson, a BBC Proms favourite, is a British conductor, arranger and musical scholar probably best known for his hugely popular programmes of light music - which he often performs with his own ensemble, the John Wilson Orchestra. But, as a guest conductor of several leading orchestras (including Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), he is also comfortable with standard classical repertoire. In 2021 he caused a stir at the BBC Proms with his re-established orchestra, the Sinfonia of London, and a programme conjuring up the world of fin-de-siècle Vienna. And he is outspoken about his desire to avoid being pigeonholed.
How old is conductor John Wilson?
John Wilson was born in 1972, in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
How did John Wilson get into music?
As a Tyneside schoolboy, Wilson fell in love with movie soundtracks. With help from his musical mother, he taught himself to play the piano, and later took up the percussion at school. Then, in the 1980s, he studied Music A level at Newcastle College, where he cut his teeth as a conductor, putting together and conducting various ensembles, including a 96-piece orchestra for a concert version of West Side Story.
Where did he train?
At the Royal College of Music, initially as a percussionist and later studying composition and conducting. In a Guardian interview from 2017 he recalls: 'I went from being almost thrown out at the end of my first year to winning the Tagore Gold Medal [the college’s most prestigious award for students]. They just let me do my thing.'
When did he found the John Wilson Orchestra?
Wilson founded his eponymous orchestra in 1994, when he was just 22.
What kind of light music does he conduct exactly?
Mostly hits from the Golden age of Hollywood. And he argues that these are as serious in their craft as a Brahms symphony or a song by Schubert, conducting them with an attention to detail and seriousness of purpose that has done a huge amount for their reputation.
And in terms of standard repertoire?
His tastes are broad but he has a particularly soft spot for British music: Vaughan Williams, Delius, Elgar and others.
Where can I next hear him?
At the BBC Proms on Sunday 4 August 2024, with the Sinfonia of London once again, in an all-American programme. You'll hear Wynton Marsalis's Herald, Holler and Hallelujah! (UK premiere) and Aaron Copland's Billy the Kid – suite. These will be joined by Samuel Barber's much-loved Adagio for strings and George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Also on the bill are Charles Ives's The Unanswered Question, and John Adams's Harmonielehre.
Image by Sim Canetty-Clarke
