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The English conductor and singing teacher, David Crown, has been singing and conducting choirs and orchestras since his teens. He won a Choral Scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge and was also a university instrumental award holder on the viola. At university he conducted many symphonies and large-scale oratorios and for a while also played the viola professionally. He also conducted his youth orchestras and at the Purcell School of Music where he attended sixth form.
Immediately after leaving university David Crown embarked on a career as bass-baritone soloist in opera, lieder and oratorio winning several competitions. He also built a considerable reputation as teacher of singing and conducting. He taught for five years at Bristol University and now teaches in Oxford. In more recent years he has left the world of solo singing and returned to his first love of conducting.
David Crown is Director of Music at Somerville College, Oxford, and Music Director of the Reading Phoenix Choir, The Oxford Singers and The Wychwood Chorale. His work with choirs and orchestras has attracted superb notices in the UK and abroad. He is also in demand for master-classes and as guest conductor with many other choirs and orchestras. He is frequently asked to be on the judging panel of competitions, both choral, vocal and in composition.
A CD of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem coupled with the world premiere recording of Robin Milford’s Mass recorded by Somerville and featuring soloists including mezzo-soprano Christine Rice and cellist Guy Johnston was released on Stone Records in 2012 and received excellent reviews. Reading Phoenix Choir have made several broadcasts and took part in the Olympic Torch ceremonies. Somerville have been invited to sing Evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral twice in the coming year and will be taking part in Writing for Voices, part of the Britten in Oxford festival in 2013 as the only collegiate choir. Somerville are recording their follow-up disc of Advent Music in 2013. |
