Chris Stark |
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Based in South East London, Chris began as a cellist, turning to conducting whilst a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. As co-founder of the RPS Award Winning Multi-Story Orchestra, he has conducted all of the Orchestra’s car park performances since their inception with The Rite of Spring in 2011, including celebrated performances at the BBC Proms. Away from Multi-Story, he works mostly in opera, for organisations including Glyndebourne, Oper Köln, Garsington, ETO, OAE, Gurzenich Orchestra. Committed to community music, he is Principal Conductor of Ernest Read and Blackheath Halls Symphony Orchestras. He has recorded for NMC and broadcast with both Multi-Story and Aurora. https://www.christopherstark.co.uk |
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Rupert Bond gained his BMus at Goldsmiths' College, London University before studying as a postgraduate conductor and double bass player at the Royal Academy of Music. He later gained an MMus in Composition at Surrey University. He has free-lanced as a conductor and bass player with numerous orchestras. A career change led to him being appointed as Director of Music at James Allen's Girls' School, London. During this period that he continued to conduct, and founded the Docklands Sinfonietta, whilst also developing as a composer. He has written over 40 compositions. In 1999 he was appointed an Associate of the RAM. In 2003 he returned to full-time conducting, spending time in New Zealand and also in SW England, but since 2013 he has been based in Kent. He regularly conducts many orchestras, including the Folkestone Symphony, Southwark Sinfonietta, European Doctors', Kingston 3AO, Wimbledon Community, Suffolk Sinfonia, and Dartford Symphony. He has recently finished a recording project in the Czech Republic for the New Zealand composer Eric Biddington. |
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Dwight Pile-Gray studied the French Horn at Trinity College of Music as well as conducting with Peter Stark and Gregory Rose. On completion of his degree in 2005, he joined the Corps of Army Music and played in the bands of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and the Scots Guards. He now serves with the Band of the Grenadier Guards whilst pursuing a career performing, teaching, and playing with his ensemble, the Apollo Wind Quintet. As a champion of diversity in music and as a performer, Dwight plays with Chineke!, and has performed with them at the BBC Proms. In 2018 he became a conductor for the St Giles Orchestra in Oxford and conductor of The Old Barn Orchestral Society, Maidstone. In 2021, he was appointed Musical Director of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble of North London and the Musical Director of Liberty Choir. Dwight has served on the executive committee of the British Association of Symphonic Wind Band Music and is artist-in residence with the Ark foundation of schools. Dwight lectures at the London College of Music and is studying for a PhD on the influences of spirituals on the orchestral compositions of African-American composers Robert Nathaniel Dett, William Grant Still and William Levi Dawson. In February 2021 he was awarded an AHRC/BBC Fellowship to carry out research for the BBC’s celebration of classical composers from diverse ethnic backgrounds. This research will inform performances and broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 by the BBC orchestras including a special concert in 2022 showcasing works of the featured composers. |
