GRAHAM CALDBECK
Conductor

 GRAHAM CALDBECK is one of Britain’s leading conductors of amateur choirs, known for his wide-ranging musical skills, innovative programming and stylish performances. He studied music at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a Choral Scholar under Richard Marlow, and has sung with the Cathedral Choirs of Guildford and Winchester. He holds both the Fellowship and Choir Training diplomas of the Royal College of Organists, is a former Assistant Organist at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and is currently Director of Music at St Mary The Boltons, SW10. For fifteen years, Graham held senior positions at the Royal College of Music and he now pursues a freelance career as conductor, organist, vocal coach and teacher.

Graham has conducted Somerset Chamber Choir since 1990, working with many of the UK’s most talented instrumentalists and soloists. He is also conductor of the Nonsuch Singers, a London-based chamber choir whose concerts are regularly highlighted by the national press, and the Mayfield Festival Choir in East Sussex. Outside Somerset during 2007-2008, Graham conducted the Nonsuch Singers in works by Monteverdi, Brahms and Gabriel Jackson in the Spitalfields Winter Festival in London and gave the world premiere of a new work for choir and shakuhachi by Roxanna Panufnik, in St. John’s, Smith Square in March 2008, both concerts being attended by the contemporary composers. He directed a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers with Canzona as part of the 2008 Mayfield Festival, and in June 2008 conducted a programme of music from England’s ‘Golden Age’ with Dame Emma Kirkby, lutenist Jakob Lindberg and the Nonsuch Singers in the newly-refurbished St Martin-in-the-Fields.

During the 2008-2009 season he has conducted concerts of English, American, German and Austrian works in St George’s, Bloomsbury and St. Martin’s (three concerts); a highly acclaimed performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Canzona in Southwark Cathedral; Passiontide music by Cornyshe, Victoria, Scarlatti, Casals, Knut Nystedt and Jonathan Harvey in St. Giles, Cripplegate, Barbican; works by Handel and Bach in Mayfield in May with Canzona, and last week directed a concert of music by Mozart and James MacMillan with Nonsuch Singers and London Primavera in St Martin-in-the-Fields to celebrate MacMillan’s 50^th birthday.

Future projects include a programme entitled The English Genius comprising music by Purcell, Britten, Jonathan Dove & Richard Rodney Bennett in St Giles, Cripplegate, Barbican in October with Nonsuch Singers and Richard Pearce (organ & piano) , a ‘composers’ anniversaries’ concert of music by Purcell, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn in Mayfield and a Christmas programme in St James’s, Piccadilly in December with Nonsuch Singers, entitled Christmas present, Christmas past and including English/British works ranging from Tallis and Sheppard in the 16^th century to Judith Weir, Judith Bingham and Thomas Adès in our own time.

Graham writes:

"Since I first conducted the Somerset Chamber Choir in a large scale concert in 1990, the Choir has continued to extend its expertise in an ever widening repertoire. From music of medieval times through that of the Golden Age (Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons & Weelkes), Baroque (Bach, Handel, Purcell, Scarlatti, Lalande & Charpentier), Classical (Haydn & Mozart), Romantic (Beethoven, Rossini, Bruckner & Elgar) and twentieth century (including Duruflé, Poulenc, Britten, Walton, Bernstein, Tavener, Gorecki, Pärt, Dove, MacMillan & Rutter), the Choir has provided its audience with impressive programmes of the finest choral music sung to the highest standard. Variety of repertoire has required a variety of instrumental forces. Besides a cappella music, the Choir has been accompanied by piano, organ, harp, baroque and modern orchestras, brass and percussion, and even handbells and a saxophone quartet! Well-known instrumentalists the Choir has worked with include Catherine Mackintosh, Theresa Caudle, Philip Picket, Jeremy West, David Miller, Richard Pearce, Christopher Stokes, Rupert Gough and Crispian Steele-Perkins. The Choir has sung with an array of soloists of the highest caliber, including numerous international recording celebrities, among them Emma Kirkby, Gillian Fisher, Janis Kelly, James Bowman, Michael Chance, Rufus Müller, Adrian Thomson, Andrew Kennedy, James Oxley, Christopher Maltman and Michael George. What is particularly encouraging is that the Choir has not only extended its musical confidence and range, but in doing so has also increased its audience over a larger area, giving concerts in Devon and Dorset as well as regular performances in Taunton, Wells and elsewhere in Somerset (Martock in 2006 and Weston-Super-Mare Festival 2007). The endorsement of the Choir's work by our Honorary Patrons Sir David Willcocks and Dame Emma Kirkby, together with excellent press reviews, have been welcome votes of confidence."