Barry Wordsworth
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Barry Wordsworth (born 20 February 1948) is a British conductor.


Biography

Wordsworth was appointed assistant conductor to the touring orchestra 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 1972. In 1973, he became principal conductor of the
Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) is one of the five major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside The Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet. Founded as the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, the co ...
, and held the same title after the company moved to Birmingham to become the Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB). He served as music director of the Royal Ballet from 1990 to 1995, and again from 2006 to 2015. He returned to BRB as its music director from 2005 to 2008. Wordsworth is currently principal guest conductor of The Royal Ballet. From 1989 to 2006, he was principal conductor of 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 ...
, becoming conductor laureate in 2006. From 1989 to 2015, Wordsworth was music director and the Principal Conductor of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra. In March 2007 at
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
, Wordsworth caused controversy when he refused to conduct Andrew Gant's new composition ''A British Symphony'' the day of its scheduled premiere. Wordsworth's discography includes works by lesser-known British composers alongside more mainstream pieces. In his career Wordsworth has appeared with orchestras in the UK and overseas. He has made appearances at the BBC Proms and conducted the Last Night of the Proms in 1993 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2003, he was the first conductor to record commercially all nine surviving movements of Constant Lambert's ballet ''
Horoscope A horoscope (or other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart) is an ast ...
'' (only a suite of five movements had previously been recorded).


References


External links


IMG Artists agency biography of Barry Wordsworth

Heather Bloom, "Barry Wordsworth: Best of the Brits". Australian Ballet, 8 November 2023


{{DEFAULTSORT:Wordsworth, Barry 1948 births Living people British male conductors (music) English conductors (music) People from Worcester Park Alumni of Trinity College of Music People educated at Glyn School 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century British male musicians Principal conductors of the BBC Concert Orchestra Musicians from the London Borough of Sutton