James Burton >

David Todd >

James Burton

Born in London, conductor James Burton was head chorister at Westminster Abbey and studied music as a choral scholar at St John’s College at Cambridge University. He holds a Master’s degree in conducting from the Peabody Conservatory where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier.

James enjoys a reputation as a conductor whose interpretations offer great energy, vitality and emotional depth, and he is passionate about communicating with the concert-going public and bringing new audiences to classical music. He has recently conducted at some of Britain’s leading musical organizations, including the Hallé, the OAE, the RLPO and ENO, and he recently visited New York to lead a workshop at the Metropolitan Opera on Nico Muhly’s new opera Two Boys. In spring 2011 James will lead his fifth year as Music Director of the St Endellion Easter Festival in Cornwall. Highlights of James’s concerts there so far include performances of Cavalleria Rusticana, Brahms Requiem and the Cornish premiere of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts. James has also worked as assistant conductor at BBCSO, ENO and Opera Rara, and he enjoys a close relationship with Garsington Opera where, in 2008, he was the recipient of the Leonard Ingrams Award for outstanding work with the company. He will be working at the Opera de Paris for the first time next season.

In addition to his work with orchestras and in opera, James is firmly established as one of the UK’s leading choral conductors. His reputation in this field was cemented during his tenure as Choral Director at the Hallé Orchestra (2002-9) with which he gave countless performances, particularly in large-scale choral concerts. Under his leadership the Hallé Choir and the Hallé Youth Choir, which he founded in 2003, received outstanding critical coverage for their performances and recordings. Their recording of Elgar The Dream of Gerontius received the 2009 Gramophone choral award. He has enjoyed guest appearances with the Gabrieli Consort, the Wrocław Philharmonic Choir and the Choir and Orchestra of London on their 2009 tour of Palestine. James is Music Director of the RNCM chamber choir, and he has also chorus mastered for many professional ensembles, including the Choir of the OAE, the BBC Singers and the Netherlands Radio Choir.

James has been Music Director of Schola Cantorum of Oxford since 2002 and is the choir’s longest serving conductor. He has overseen a remarkably eventful period in the choir’s history. He has given concerts with Schola all over the world, released two acclaimed recordings on Hyperion Records, conducted BBC radio broadcasts and appeared with them in BBC TV films. In summer 2010 James conducted the choir’s 50th anniversary concert in the Sheldonian Theatre and, as well as sharing the platform with the OAE and distinguished soloists, he gave the premiere of Bring Us, O Lord God by James MacMillan, which was commissioned for the occasion.

James’ diversity as a musician has led to numerous collaborations, including conducting a concert with Scottish folk singer Eddie Reader, a West End musical starring Brian Blessed and Roy Hudd, and commissioning a jazz setting of the Evensong service by Roderick Williams. James also writes music, and his works have recently been performed in the USA as well as the UK. In 2007 he wrote an album of orchestral arrangements for American folk legend Arlo Guthrie, who has performed them with some of the finest orchestras in the USA including the Boston Pops Orchestra, and at Carnegie Hall. James’s most recent commission was for the theme music and fanfare for the opening ceremony of the World Equestrian Games, which were held in Kentucky last September. On Christmas Night, a new work for chorus and orchestra, was given its premiere by the Hallé Orchestra and Choir in December.

"James Burton inspires Oxford's classy intercollegiate choir to realise a masterpiece in Randall Thompson's The Peaceable Kingdom … the bright, lithe sopranos are absolutely together … the stimulating rhythms, exquisite tuning, rich word painting and constant attention to imaginative dynamics make this an outstanding performance.”
The Times, October 2008

David Todd

David Todd was born and educated in Solihull, where he was supported in his musical development from a young age. He advanced his choral skills while in the post of Organ Scholar at St James the Great Church, Shirley under the tutelage of Kevin Gill, and in 2010 became Organ Scholar of University College Oxford, where he regularly conducts and accompanies the college choir while reading for a degree in music. David is active as a recitalist, recently giving organ recitals at Christ Church, St Johns and Pembroke colleges, and on the piano, in which he holds a DipABRSM Performer’s Diploma. He also conducts the university-wide Univ Chorus, with whom he gives regular concerts in Oxford, and is a keen composer, having written and premiered his own musical, while more recently conducting his piece ‘The Last Patrol’ in Merton College, which was based on the experiences of a serving soldier in Afghanistan. David studies choral conducting with Paul Spicer as well as singing with Rebecca Outram, and is very much looking forward to beginning his role as Schola Cantorum’s first conducting scholar.