Frank Renton is a British musician, conductor and broadcaster, and former host of ''Listen to the Band'' on BBC Radio 2. An accomplished

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

player, Renton won a competition for young conductors at the 1967

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

, whilst employed as a musician in the British Army. Conducting appointments soon followed in West Germany, Cyprus, Singapore and Scotland, before returning to England as Director of a Military Music School in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

. He was Musical Director for Versatile Brass for three years, and began conducting the

Grimethorpe Colliery Band The Grimethorpe Colliery Band is a brass band, based in Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, England. It was formed in 1917, as a leisure activity for the workers at the colliery, by members of the disbanded Cudworth Colliery Band. Along with the Blac ...

. He has also worked extensively with the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...

and

BBC Radio Orchestra The BBC Radio Orchestra was a broadcasting orchestra based in London, maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation from 1964 until 1991. The BBC Radio Orchestra was formed in 1964 as a large, flexible studio orchestra on the Nelson Riddle/H ...

, as well as writing and producing a number of musical programmes for

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

. In 1985, Renton was appointed Principal Conductor of the Royal Artillery Orchestra in London, then in 1988 accepted the dual appointment of Principal Director of Music for the Army and Director of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall in the rank of Lt. Colonel, the youngest person ever to hold the dual appointments. In 1988, he also became Principal Conductor of the British Concert Orchestra, and began to guest conduct all over the world. Through the series of Royal Concerts in London he conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Halle Orchestra, the Orchestra of English National Opera and the Scottish National orchestra, and was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 1986. He is also a member of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In 1993, as a direct result of the celebration of the Centenary of the Leeds City Charter, and after a concert in Leeds Town Hall, in which some 250 local wind players took part, Frank Renton co-founded, and initially conducted, the Yorkshire Wind Orchestra. This large wind ensemble of woodwind, brass and percussionists, is a community based ensemble. In 2009 and 2010, with the 'Brass Band du Nord Pas-de-Calais', he won the French Brass Band Championship.

References

External links

Brass Band du Nord Pas-de-Calais
1939 births Living people British radio personalities British male conductors (music) BBC Radio 2 presenters 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century British male musicians {{UK-conductor-stub