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John Wilson

Conductor
Artistic Director, Sinfonia of London

  • John Wilson is in demand at the highest level across the globe, regularly guest conducting the world’s finest orchestras: in recent seasons these have included the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Budapest Festival, Oslo Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Sydney Symphony orchestras, and productions at English National Opera and Glyndebourne Summer Festival.


    For many years Wilson appeared widely across the UK and abroad with the John Wilson Orchestra.  In 2018 he relaunched the Sinfonia of London. Their much-anticipated BBC Proms debut in 2021 was described  by The Guardian as “truly outstanding” and they are now much in demand across the UK, returning to the BBC Proms, Birmingham Symphony Hall and London’s Barbican Centre among other venues this season. 

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  • Wilson has a large and varied discography and his recordings with the Sinfonia of London have received exceptional acclaim and several awards including, for three successive years, the BBC Music Magazine Award in the Orchestral category for the Korngold Symphony in F sharp (2020), Respighi Roman Trilogy (2021) and Dutilleux Le Loup (2022) recordings.  The Observer described the Respighi recording as “Massive, audacious and vividly played” and The Times declared it one of the three “truly outstanding accounts of this trilogy” of all time, after those by Toscanini (1949) and Muti (1984).


    Born in Gateshead, Wilson studied composition and conducting at the Royal College of Music where, in 2011, he was made a Fellow. In March 2019, John Wilson was awarded the prestigious ISM Distinguished Musician Award for his services to music and in 2021 was appointed Henry Wood Chair of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music.

    22/23 season, 270 words. Not to be altered without permission.

Performances

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Livestreams and Broadcasts

Sinfonia of London Prom | July 2022


Vaughan Williams, Walton, Walker, Bax, Elgar


Click to watch on BBC iPlayer


 


London Symphony Orchestra | April 2021


Bennett, Ravel and Gershwin


Click to watch on Marquee TV

[Wilson] has an unfussy but telling elegance of gesture – no sweaty ‘conductor’s ecstasy’ for him – which had surprisingly huge effects, like throwing the stage light-switches in a theatre; a single flick of that forefinger, and we were flooded in aural dazzlement and colour and magic.

Telegraph

Everything about the performances signals a conductor and an orchestra who really believe in the quality of the music they are performing... Wilson manages to bring transparency and buoyancy to even the most massive climaxes.

Guardian

As we’ve come to expect from Wilson and his Sinfonia, this was an evening compounded of excitement and insight, with terrifically incisive playing across the board. Wilson’s approach to the Enigma Variations…was an interpretation of marvellous freshness; bittersweet, unsentimental and wonderfully human; the most engaging account of the work I’ve heard for some time.

Guardian

Intermusica represents John Wilson worldwide

Stephen Lumsden
Chief Executive
+44 20 7608 9900

Leyla Güneş
Orchestral
+44 20 7608 9927
lgunes@intermusica.com

Julia Maynard
Opera
+44 20 7608 9902
jmaynard@intermusica.com

Charles Leeson
Assistant Artist Manager
+44 20 7608 9901
cleeson@intermusica.com

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All artists

Chansonnier

HK Gruber

Counter-tenor

Tim Mead

Piano accompanist

Roger Vignoles