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