Howard Arman (born 1954 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) is an English choral conductor and opera director. He won the Handel Prize of the Handel Festival, Halle, in 1996, shaped the festival's orchestra and conducted operas of George Frideric Handel. He is a conductor of the Theater and Philharmonie Thüringen, also the Luzerner Theater. Since 2017 he is the Director of the Bayerische Rundfunk Chor.

Career

Howard Arman studied at the Trinity College of Music in London. He first worked with leading British ensembles, but moved to Austria and Germany in 1981.Howard Arman (Conductor)
bach-cantatas.com Arman has conducted (among others) the radio choirs of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, the

Südwestrundfunk Südwestrundfunk (SWR; ''Southwest Broadcasting'') is a regional public broadcasting corporation serving the southwest of Germany , specifically the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The corporation has main offices ...

, the

Österreichischer Rundfunk ('Austrian Broadcasting Corporation'; ORF) is an Austrian national public broadcaster. Funded from a combination of television licence fee revenue and limited on-air advertising, ORF is the dominant player in the Austrian broadcast media. Aus ...

and the RIAS Kammerchor. From 1983 to 2000 he was the leader of the Salzburger Bach-Chor and since 1998 he has been director and artistic leader of the MDR Rundfunkchor, the choir of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR). He is general music director of Theater and Philharmonie Thüringen for the 2010/2011 season and musical director of the Lucerne theatre for three years from the 2011/12 season onwards. Since 2010/11 he has been the musical leader of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester (LSO), with James Gaffigan as the LSO's conductor. In 1984 he prepared the Tölzer Knabenchor for a recording of Bach's '' Mass in B minor'' with Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort and Players Starting in 1993 he shaped the Händel-Festspielorchester, the orchestra of the Handel Festival, on

period instruments In the historically informed performance movement, musicians perform classical music using restored or replicated versions of the instruments for which it was originally written. Often performances by such musicians are said to be "on authentic ...

, which earned him the Festival's Handel Prize of 1996.Winners of the Handel Prize
/ref> He conducted Handel's opera '' Tolomeo'' in 1996 at the festival, probably the first production and recording of the work with period instruments. In 2000 he recorded Rachmaninoff's ''

All-Night Vigil The All-night vigil is a service of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches consisting of an aggregation of the canonical hours of Compline (in Greek usage only), Vespers (or, on a few occasions, Great Compline), Matins, and the F ...

'' with the MDR-Rundfunkchor. In 2005 Arman conducted Purcell's ''

Dido and Aeneas ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was com ...

'' at the Luzerner Theater. In 2006 Arman conducted Handel's opera ''

Admeto ' ("Admetus, King of Thessaly", HWV 22) is a three-act opera written for the Royal Academy of Music with music composed by George Frideric Handel to an Italian-language libretto prepared by Nicola Francesco Haym. The story is partly based on Eu ...

'' at the Handel Festival, directed by Axel Köhler and recorded. In 2009 he recorded in the Marktkirche in Halle, the church where Handel was baptized, the opening concert of the ''Handel Special Day'', a collaboration of 40 broadcasters. Four choirs and two orchestras reconstructed a memorial concert, held for the composer in 1784 in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

, including ''Zadok the Priest'' (one of Handel's Coronation Anthems). In 2010 Arman conducted Mozart's ''

Le nozze di Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...

'' at the Luzerner Theater, directed by David Herrmann. Arman recorded

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber ( bapt. 12 August 1644, Stráž pod Ralskem – 3 May 1704, Salzburg) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist. Biber worked in Graz and Kroměříž before he illegally left his employer, Prince-Bishop Karl L ...

's ''Marienvesper 1693'' (Vesperae longiores ac breviores (1693), a setting of the

Vespers Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic (both Latin and Eastern), Lutheran, and Anglican liturgies. The word for this fixed prayer time comes from the Latin , meanin ...

), with the Salzburger Bach-Chor.Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber – Marienvesper 1693
www.allaboutjazz.com Arman has been a professor at the

Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Mo ...

in Salzburg. Since 2017 he is the Director of the Bayerische Rundfunk Chor.

selected Recordings

* Howard Arman: Metamorphosen – MDR-Rundfunkchor ( MDR Klassik, 2013) *

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

: Motetten – Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks und die Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (BR-Klassik, 2018) *

: Marienvesper – Salzburger Barockensemble und der Salzburger Bachchor ( Ars Musici, 1996) *

Thomas Buchholz Thomas Walter Buchholz (born 27 August 1961) is a German composer and music educator. Life Buchholz was born in 1961 in Eisenach as the son of the oratorio singer and vocal pedagogue Kurt Wichmann and the concert pianist and music teacher Jutta ...

: Kammersinfonie VIII – Händelfestspielorchester Halle (Thorofon Classics, 1998) * Antonín Dvořák: Stabat Mater – Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks (BR-Klassik, 2019) * Carl Heinrich Graun:

Der Tod Jesu ''Der Tod Jesu'' (''The Death of Jesus'') is an oratorio libretto by Karl Wilhelm Ramler. In its setting by Carl Heinrich Graun in 1755, it was the most often performed Passion of the 18th century in Germany. The poem is part of the '' Empfin ...

– MDR Rundfunkchor und das

MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra The MDR-Sinfonieorchester (in English, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra) is a German radio orchestra based in Leipzig. It is the radio orchestra of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, the public broadcaster for the German states of Thuringia, Saxony ...

(MDR Edition, 2004) *

Georg Friedrich Händel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...

Occasional Oratorio ''An Occasional Oratorio'' ( HWV 62) is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel, based upon a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton after the poetry of John Milton and Edmund Spenser. The work was written in the midst of the Jacobite rising of 1745–1746 ...

– Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks und die Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin ( BR-Klassik, 2017) * Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Psalmen – Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks und das Munich Radio Orchestra (BR-Klassik, 2017) *

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

: Große Messe in c-Moll – Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks und das Munich Radio Orchestra (BR-Klassik, 2018) *

: Requiem – Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks und das Munich Radio Orchestra (BR-Klassik, 2020) * Claudio Monteverdi: Vesper zum Fest Christi Himmelfahrt – Schütz-Akademie (Capriccio, 1996) * Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vespers – MDR Rundfunkchor (Berlin Classics, 2002) *

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...

: Stabat Mater – Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks und das Munich Radio Orchestra (Sony Classical, 2018) *

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

: Musikalische Exequien – Schütz-Akademie (Berlin Classics, 2005) * Robert Schumann: Chorwerke – MDR Rundfunkchor (MDR Edition, 2005) * Othmar Schoeck: Chorwerke – MDR Rundfunkchor ( Claves Records, 2007)

References

External links

Howard Arman
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Arman, Howard Artists from London 1954 births Living people British opera directors English conductors (music) British male conductors (music) Alumni of Trinity College of Music English directors Handel Prize winners 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century British male musicians