Graham Ross
Conductor/Composer Ikon Arts Management Ltd
“Ross had demonstrated a gift for conjuring up an organic orchestral sound.” Suite 114, Business Design Centre Nordjske, Aalborg 52 Upper Street, London N1 0QH Website www.grahamross.com t: +44 (0)20 7354 9199 Contact Nicola Semple f: +44 (0)870 130 9646 [email protected] Email [email protected] www.ikonarts.com
Graham Ross is Director of Music and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and Principal Conductor of The Dmitri Ensemble. A composer and conductor of a very broad range of repertoire, he has had works performed throughout Europe and beyond. A passionate believer in the unveiling of both unjustly-neglected and newly-written works, he has given numerous first performances as both a pianist and conductor of a very broad spectrum of composers.
He guest conducts ensembles and orchestras across the UK and beyond, with recent performances with Aurora, Aalborg and RCM Symphony Orchestras and Covent Garden, Tallis, Kensington, Hertfordshire, Haydn, Nonesuch and East Anglia Chamber Orchestras. At the age of 25 he made his BBC Proms and Glyndebourne debuts, with other opera work taking him to Jerusalem, London, Aldeburgh and Provence.
His recordings with The Dmitri Ensemble and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge have earned consistently high praise and won numerous awards, including a Gramophone Award nomination, a Diapason d’Or, Le Choix de France Musique, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and BBC Music Magazines, Album of the Week on Netherlands Radio 4 and New York City’s WQXR Public Radio, and regularly making the Top 10 of the UK Specialist Classical Charts. He has conducted acclaimed première recordings of works by James MacMillan, Judith Bingham, Giles Swayne, Vaughan Williams, Imogen Holst, Nico Muhly and Brett Dean, recording exclusively since 2011 for Harmonia Mundi USA.
As a composer, recent performances have been given by, amongst others, Aurora Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Barry Humphries, BBC Concert Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Gloucester Cathedral Choir, The Hermes Experiment, National Youth Choir of Great Britain, O Duo, Park Lane Group, Patricia Rozario, and the Solstice Quartet, at the Al Bustan (Lebanon), Colourscape, Edington, London Contemporary Church Music, Musique Cordiale (Provence), Spitalfields and Three Choirs Festivals, at venues including LSO St Luke’s, Wigmore Hall, Westminster Abbey and Sydney Opera House. He is published by Novello & Co, Oxford University Press, Encore Publications and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
As an animateur and through outreach work he has conducted projects in Tower Hamlets, Wigmore Hall, English National Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and overseas in Nigeria, Palestine, Germany and the USA. He collaborates biennally with English Touring Opera and Clare College in a song-writing project with Alzheimer’s and dementia sufferers. He is Artistic Director of Fringe in the Fen, a music and arts festival in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.
He studied music at Clare College, Cambridge and conducting at the Royal College of Music, London. He held a conducting scholarship with the London Symphony Chorus, has served as assistant conductor for Diego Masson, Sir Roger Norrington and Nicholas Collon, and acted as Chorus Master for Sir Colin Davies, Sir Mark Elder, Ivor Bolton, Edward Gardner, Richard Tognetti and Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
Forthcoming projects in 2015 include new commissions for Gallipoli Foundation and Novello publications; three CD releases on the Harmonia Mundi USA label: Shostakovich/Rudolf Barshai Chamber Symphonies with The Dmitri Ensemble, Ascendit Deus: Music for Ascensiontide and Pentecost and Victoria Requiem: Music for All Saints and All Souls, and with the Choir of Clare College; conducting work across the USA with the Choir of Clare College; performances of James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross with The Dmitri Ensemble, Haydn Die Schöpfung for Musique Cordiale Festival, Handel Messiah with the Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment, and return invitations to Covent Garden Chamber, Hertfordshire Chamber, London Philharmonic and RCM Symphony Orchestras, and the London Mozart Players. Recording projects include Duruflé Requiem with Jennifer Johnston, Neal Davies and the Choir of Clare College.
May 2015 Please do not use this biography if it is more than three months old [email protected] www.ikonarts.com t: +44 (0)20 7354 9199