Hilary Davan Wetton (Artistic Director)

Hilary Davan Wetton has been Artistic Director of the City of London Choir since 1989. 

He is also Principal Conductor of Guildford Choral Society, and is Conductor Emeritus of the Milton Keynes City Orchestra (of which he was the founder conductor). He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford and the Royal College of Music, where he studied conducting with Sir Adrian Boult and was awarded the Ricordi conducting prize in 1967.

He has enjoyed a distinguished musical career as both conductor and teacher and has always been committed to fostering the talent of young musicians. He was Director of Music at St Paul’s Girls’ School (where his predecessors included Holst and Howells) from 1979 to 1994 and at Tonbridge School from 1994 to 2006.

In 2003 he conducted the National Children’s Orchestra in the Symphony Hall, Birmingham and in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and he returns to the NCO in 2007 and 2008. He is also Principal Conductor of the Classical Roadshow, which has premiered many new works for professional orchestra and young audience – most recently with the RPO at the Cadogan Hall in Richard Brown’s Zambezi Tales. Hilary conducted and toured Europe with the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra during the Festival in 2002. He was founder conductor of the Scottish Schools’ Orchestra from 1984 to 1995.

Hilary Davan Wetton has appeared on radio as both performer and broadcaster. For many years he presented the successful series Masterclass for Classic FM, in which he introduced great musical masterpieces with live musical examples. He has appeared on BBC Radio 3 with the BBC Concert Orchestra and conducted a series of first broadcasts of 19th-century British symphonies by Cipriani Potter, William Sterndale Bennett, William Crotch and Samuel Wesley with the Ulster Orchestra. He went on to record these works for Unicorn-Kanchana.

Hilary was founder-conductor of the Holst Singers and through this and his long-standing associations with Guildford Choral Society and the City of London Choir he has conducted all the major choral repertoire. He is particularly associated with 20th-century British composers and has conducted many neglected works of Parry, Holst, Dyson and Bridge.

Hilary has made a series of well-received recordings for Collins Classics with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and has also recorded for Hyperion and Unicorn-Kanchana with the Holst Singers. His 1994 recording of Holst’s Choral Symphony with the Guildford Choral Society was awarded the coveted Diapason d’Or.

His most recent recording – Vaughan Williams’s Christmas cantata Hodie – is released by Naxos in November 2007.

Hilary was musical consultant to the recent BBC1 series Play It Again and was seen on screen in March 2007 teaching Jo Brand the organ.

www.hilarydavanwetton.co.uk

• The Choir
• Assistant Conductor – Mark Williams