Stephen Jackson
Stephen Jackson has been Music Director of the Cheltenham Bach Choir since 1998, a period that has seen big advances in both the musical standard and profile of the choir. For the past 20 years he has been Director of the BBC Symphony Chorus, assisting a host of eminent conductors and composers, including Sir Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Roger Norrington, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, John Adams and many others.
Stephen also regularly conducts the BBC Symphony Chorus himself, in the concert hall and recording studio and on tour, and in particular has extended the range of the ensemble’s a cappella repertoire which, uniquely for a choir of its size and type, features such major scores as Schoenberg Friede auf Erden, Strauss Der Abend and Poulenc Figure humaine. Together they have also given a cappella premieres of works by Mark-Anthony Turnage, Richard Rodney Bennett, Judith Bingham, Henryk Górecki, Carl Rütti and many other composers. Stephen is busy throughout Europe and further afield as conductor, teacher and adjudicator. Last year he visited the University of Wyoming, USA, and he is a regular guest conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir and Choir of Radio France. In London he teaches at Trinity College of Music where he directs the Chamber Choir. As a composer and arranger he has written for the choir of Kings College Cambridge, the actress Maria Friedman, BBCTV Songs of Praise, the Radio 4 Daily Service and the Last Night of the Proms. In 2008 The King’s Singers commissioned and premiered his arrangement of music by Michael Nyman, “Handshake in the Dark.”
Stephen Jackson also directs the Trinity College of Music Chamber Choir in London, and is a council member of the Association of British Choral Directors.
Contact Stephen at:
stephen@cheltenhambachchoir.org.uk
Photograph of Stephen Jackson by Carol Hartfree
Tim Morris
Tim Morris was appointed Assistant Conductor in 1998, having filled the post of Chorus Master for the previous nine years and been involved with the choir for over twenty five years.
Tim's early musical training was under Eric Suddrick, a founder accompanist for the CBC and one of its former conductors. He went on to Selwyn College Cambridge, where in theory he studied Natural Sciences, but in practice spent most of his time making music. The first concert he conducted on leaving university was in Gloucester Cathedral in April 1973. Tim is well known locally as an accomplished musician. In addition to his CBC role he is conductor of the Oriel Singers, winners of the 2005 BBC Choir of the Year competition.
Contact Tim at: tim@cheltenhambachchoir.org.uk