Music Directing

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Photograph © Andy Friend-Smith

After a degree in English Literature at Cambridge University, Bill did a Masters in orchestral conducting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) where he studied with Martyn Brabbins. He also studied conducting with Ilya Musin in St Petersburg and with Jorma Panula in the UK and Finland. He has collaborated with internationally-renowned soloists, dancers and speakers. He was music director for the Royal Ballet productions of Elizabeth at the Linbury Theatre in 2016 and the Barbican in 2018. He is music director of Farnborough Symphony Orchestra and Imperial College Sinfonietta and he guest directs widely. In addition he directs classes and courses for students of all ages. He helped coordinate the 2009 Copernicus Music Festival in London which brought together undergraduate music students from all the UK music conservatories and the Academy of Music, Krakow. He taught conducting, chamber music and musicianship at the Junior Royal Academy of Music for seven years and he teaches occasionally at the Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has devised music projects in Special Educational Needs schools with Patrick Stockbridge.

I just wanted to say thank you so much for the concert yesterday. It was such a privilege to play under your direction: your knowledge and enthusiasm for the music we were playing, your passion and excitement for music in general and your forensic attention to detail were incredible, and all delivered with such joy and frankly inspirational serenity, which made it a real joy to be part of the orchestra.

Jo Willett (double bass, Crendon Chamber Orchestra)

Music Director

Guest Conductor

  • Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra

    Guest conductor for various programmes from 2009 to 2012. This also afforded the opportunity to explore the Al Hajar mountains.

  • Wolsey Orchestra

    Bill has a long and fruitful relationship with Wolsey Orchestra, performing with world-class soloists in the grand old Corn Exchange in Ipswich, and the stunning acoustic of The Apex in Bury St Edmunds.

  • St Albans Symphony Orchestra

    Bill has collaborated with SASO on large-scale programmes including Mahler, Symphony no. 5 and Elgar, Symphony no. 1.

Tutor

  • Junior Royal Academy of Music and Junior Guildhall School of Music

    Bill taught and coached for seven years at JRAM and now teaches conducting occasionally at JGSMD. 

  • Benslow Music

    Adult education course

    Bill has run this wonderful baroque music course with Theresa Caudle since 2010.  Open to all amateur baroque enthusiasts – with bursaries available for young professionals – it is a chance to work intensively on a different repertoire area each year. The next course is 21-24 September 2020. 

  • Jackdaws Music Education Trust

    Music projects in Somerset

    Co-leading the annual ‘Song Story’ and ‘Summer School’, composing and arranging music inspired by a different composer each year, working with Special Educational Needs schools across Somerset (Song Story) and chidren in the Frome area (Summer School). 

  • Private coaching

    Coaching in conducting, composition, singing, theory and writing.

    More about private coaching

Education

  • SEN projects with Patrick Stockbridge

    Creating stories with music since 2011

    In this unique professional partnership Bill and Patrick create immersive musical performances with students in Special Educational Needs schools across the UK. Their work has been the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary, When Words Fail, Music Speaks.