Christopher Ball (7 July 1936 – 7 April 2022) was a British composer, arranger,

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Music * Conductor (music), a person who leads a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra. * ''Conductor'' (album), an album by indie rock band The Comas * Conduction, a type of structured free improvisation ...

clarinetist This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet. Classical clarinetists * Laver Bariu * Ernest Ačkun * Luís Afonso * Cristiano Alves * Michel Arrignon * Dimitri Ashkenazy * Kinan Azmeh * Alexander Bader * Carl Baerm ...

and recorder player.

Early life and education

Ball was born in

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

in 1936. His father had trained in piano tuning and his mother was an amateur pianist. Ball attended

Roundhay School Roundhay is a large suburb in north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Roundhay had a population of 22,546 in 2011. It sits in the Roundhay (ward), Roundhay electoral, ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds North East (UK Parliament constituen ...

and was taught clarinet by Michael Saxton. He studied clarinet as well as piano at the

Royal Manchester College of Music The Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM) was a tertiary level conservatoire in Manchester, north-west England. It was founded in 1893 by the German-born conductor Sir Charles Hallé in 1893. In 1972, the Royal Manchester College of Music a ...

(now the

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music educatio ...

), where his clarinet teacher was with Norman MacDonald, and then continued his studies of the instrument at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...

with the clarinetists

Jack Brymer John Alexander Brymer OBE (27 January 191515 September 2003) was an English clarinettist. ''The Times'' called him "the leading clarinettist of his generation, perhaps of the century". Goodwin, Noël"Jack B nimble, Jack B quick" ''The Times'' ...

Reginald Kell Reginald Clifford Kell (8 June 19065 August 1981) was an English clarinettist. He was noted especially for his career as a soloist and chamber music player. He was the principal clarinettist in leading British orchestras, including the London P ...

and

Gervase de Peyer Gervase Alan de Peyer (11 April 1926 – 4 February 2017) was an English clarinettist and conductor. Professional career Gervase Alan de Peyer was born in London, the eldest of three children of Everard Esmé Vivian de Peyer, and his wife, Edith ...

.John Turner (summer 2005). The Recorder Music of Christopher Ball, Part 1. ''Recorder Magazine'' 25 (2); 43 He also studied conducting with Maurice Miles. After winning a Gulbenkian Scholarship at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jaz ...

, he took part in conducting masterclasses with

Pierre Monteux Pierre Benjamin Monteux (; 4 April 18751 July 1964) was a French (later American) conducting, conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting enga ...

Constantin Silvestri Constantin-Nicolae Silvestri (; 31 May 1913, Bucharest – 23 February 1969, London) was a Romanian conductor and composer. Early life Silvestri, born of Austro-Italian-Romanian stock, was brought up mostly by his mother, his father dying fro ...

, Sir Charles Mackerras,

Norman Del Mar Norman René Del Mar CBE (31 July 19196 February 1994) was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialised in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. He ...

and

Sir Georg Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving ...

(whose masterclass was televised), and won the Guildhall School's Ricordi Conducting Prize.

Career

Conductor and performer

Ball began his career freelancing as an orchestral clarinetist in the

Halle Orchestra Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Ha ...

under Sir John Barbirolli, while still a student at the Royal Manchester College of Music. In 1964 he became an apprentice conductor of the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra (now the

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra The BBC Philharmonic is a national British broadcasting symphony orchestra and is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Philharmonic is a department of the BBC North Group division based at MediaC ...

) and then assistant conductor of the

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The VSO performs at the Orpheum, which has been the orchestra's permanent home since 1977. With an annual operating budget of $16 million, it is ...

. He was one of several conductors of the

Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...

, Covent Garden (1968–70).Robert Markow (1 May 2010). A Conversation with Christopher Ball. ''

Fanfare A fanfare (or fanfarade or flourish) is a short musical flourish which is typically played by trumpets, French horns or other brass instruments, often accompanied by percussion. It is a "brief improvised introduction to an instrumental perfo ...

'' In 1971 Ball founded the Praetorius Consort, an early music ensemble, which he directed. The consort performed at the

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

and elsewhere in London as well as at festivals in Europe during the 1970s. It made recordings for EMI, BBC Records and Decca, including ''Medieval Paris: Music of the City''. In 1973 he founded the London Baroque Trio, performing on recorder with Mary Verney (harpsichord) and Peter Vel (bass viol). They made their Wigmore Hall debut in 1974; Joan Chissell, in a review for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'', praised Ball's playing for its "cooing tone and agility", writing that he "almost transcended the treble recorder's limitations". He played a Bressan treble recorder dated around 1710.

Academic

Ball was a professor of clarinet and recorder at the Royal Academy of Music for 41 years. His notable students include the clarinetist

Leslie Craven Leslie Craven is a British clarinettist. Until 2018, he was Principal Clarinettist in the orchestra of the Welsh National Opera. He teaches at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He is co-founder of the Clarinet Convention hosted by ...

.Thomas Hancox (September 2007). New faces: Adam Walker. ''Pan: The Flute Magazine'' 37–41

Composer

In 1981 Ball began a ten-year association with the BBC Midland Radio Orchestra, during which the BBC commissioned many light orchestral compositions and arrangements from him. These include ''A Summer Day'', one of Ball's earliest compositions, which has been broadcast more than a hundred times.R. James Tobin (2012)
CD Review: Christopher Ball Concertos
Classical Net (accessed 17 April 2022) From the mid-1990s Ball concentrated on composing.Robert Markow (January/February 2010). Ball ''Violin Concerto''. 5 ''Bagatelles''. ''From the Hebrides''. ''Celtic Twilight''. Christopher Ball, cond; Thomas Gould (vn); Paul Arden-Taylor (ob, Eh, rcr); Leslie Craven (c); Celia Birkinshaw (bn); Emerald Concert O. OMNIBUS 5003 (74:40)''

'' Starting with a recorder concerto entitled ''The Piper of Dreams'' (1995), he wrote a total of nine concertos for various instruments: oboe, Jack Sullivan (November/December 1999). Ball: Recorder Concerto; Oboe Concerto; Scenes from a Comedy; Pagan Piper; Pan Overheard. ''

American Record Guide The ''American Record Guide'' (''ARG'') is a classical music magazine. It has reviewed classical music recordings since 1935. History and profile The magazine was founded by Peter Hugh Reed in May 1935 as the ''American Music Lover''. It chang ...

'' 62 (6): 89 clarinet (2006), flute,Julian Coward (March 2007). Reviews: CDs: ''Something Old. Something Borrowed, Something New''. Jacob and Molly Roseman (flute and piano) / The Jennings-Johnson Duo. Concertartistsguild / Christopher Ball: Works featuring wind instruments, with Leslie Craven (Clarinet), Adam Walker (flute). Quantum QM 7040. ''Pan: The Flute Magazine'' 53–54 French horn, cor anglais (English horn), violin, and two for cello (dedicated to the Croatian cellist

Stjepan Hauser Stjepan Hauser (; born 15 June 1986), known professionally as HAUSER, is a Croatian cellist. He is a member of 2CELLOS, along with Luka Šulić. Early life and musical training Hauser was born in Pula, Croatia, into a musical family, where h ...

2Cellos 2CELLOS (stylized 2CΞLLOS) were a Croatian cellist duo, consisting of classically trained cellists Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser. Signed to Sony Masterworks since 2011, they released six albums. They played instrumental arrangements of wel ...

; the first dated 2010). His other recorded works include a Clarinet Quintet, ''Caprice on a Baroque Theme'', the wind quintet ''Scenes From A Comedy'', and ''Invocations of Pan''. He also wrote multiple works for solo recorder and various recorder ensembles.Recorder Music by Christopher Ball
''Recorder Magazine'' (accessed 17 April 2022); quotes from reviews in '' Classic FM Magazine'', ''Classical Record Reviews'' and ''Recorder Magazine'' Stephen H. Smith, in a recent book on 20th-century English composers, describes Ball's work as in the "tonal, easy-listening tradition".

Alan Titchmarsh Alan Fred Titchmarsh HonFSE (born 2 May 1949) is an English gardener, broadcaster, TV presenter, poet, and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a gardening journalist, he established himself as a media personality through a ...

describes Ball as an "accomplished contemporary composer" and praises his arrangement, ''The Lark in the Clear Air''. Jack Sullivan, in a review for ''

'', describes Ball's concertos for wind instruments as "unremittingly pleasant", describing them as avoiding all dissonance and characterised by a "benevolent eclecticism that gives an amiable nod to the least forced moments in 20th Century music". Andrew Achenbach, in a critical review of two recordings for ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'', found the Cello Concerto no. 1 overlong, and described it and the concertos for horn and oboe as being written in an "innocuously tuneful, wanly pastoral idiom stifling in its timidity".Andrew Achenbach (July 2012)
Concertos from clarinetist, conductor and composer Christopher Ball
''

'' (accessed 17 April 2022) Ball died on 7 April 2022 at

Denville Hall Denville Hall is a historic building in Northwood, a town in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, which is used as a retirement home for professional actors, actresses and members of other theatrical professions. The present building inc ...

.Christopher Ball: Composer – Conductor – Recorder soloist – Photographer
(accessed 17 April 2022)

References

External links

Personal Website

Christopher Ball's Recordings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Christopher 1936 births 2022 deaths Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music British classical clarinetists English composers English conductors (music) British male conductors (music) Musicians from Leeds Alumni of the Royal Manchester College of Music 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century clarinetists 21st-century British male musicians