Edward Higginbottom
Edward Higginbottom is a leading British choral conductor and organist, as well as a scholar with an interest in French Baroque music. After the usual keyboard studies as a boy, he entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, in 1966, as its organ scholar, receiving schooling to be the assistant organist and conductor for that college's chapel choir. He did a considerable amount of additional conducting during his years there. He finished his undergraduate work in 1969 and continued in graduate studies. In 1976, the position of organist and director of the Choir of New College, Oxford became vacant. Higginbottom applied, as it afforded an opportunity to continue academic work and performance, obviating what would have been a difficult choice for him between performance and academia. After his appointment as organist, fellow, and tutor in music at New College, he continued his post-graduate studies, earning his Ph.D. in 1979.
Higginbottom is in charge of 16 choristers (boy singers who attend New College School), eight "academical clerks" (New College students who receive scholarships for their singing services), the organ scholar (a vocal teacher for the boys and student singers), and six lay clerks (professional singers who form the permanent nucleus of the Choir). The consistent change in personnel -- almost complete turnarounds in membership every four years or so -- presents what Higginbottom obviously considers a satisfying, professional challenge. To deal with it, he says, he does not attempt to impose a choral sound that he imagines, but instead assesses the changed character of the choir each year. "I have to construct the instrument, as it were, from what I am offered.... But it's wonderful to hear the development of these young men throughout their time in the choir," he once said in an interview.
Higginbottom maintains a busy schedule as tutor, teacher, researcher, director, and conductor of the choir. Mainly during school holidays, the choir travels for performances outside Oxford, which may be as near as London for a BBC Promenade Concert appearance at Royal Albert Hall or as far as Australia. Higginbottom has taken the Choir to the major cities of Europe, to the United States, and to Brazil.
He has led the Choir in many of its nearly seventy compact discs in the active catalogues. These include lighter choral selections and Christmas programs, as well as a repertory of vast range, from Josquin De Prez to Gorecki, with particular emphasis on British composers of the English Renaissance, the middle Baroque, and the music of Handel. He has also helped prepare the Choir for recordings he did not himself conduct, notably the complete series of Henry Purcell's odes and sacred music with Robert King and the King's Consort.
Higginbottom has published his editions of music of François Couperin and Michel Corrette, and is the author of several articles on French Baroque music. In 1990, the French government awarded him the rank of Officier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2010, Higginbottom and the Choir launched a new label, Novum, with a recording of Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers.
© TiVo
Artistes similaires
-
Rameau Re-Imagined
Edward Higginbottom, Holly Teague
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 2 juin 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bluebird - Music Of Contemplation
Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
François Couperin : "Exultent supero" (Motets choisis) (Solistes du New College Oxford - Collegium Novum - Edward Higginbottom)
Messes, Passions, Requiems - Paru chez Novum le 3 janv. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stanford: Anthems & Motets
Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 1 janv. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Byrd: Lamentations, Four Part Mass / Tallis: Lamentations I &II, Audivi Vocem De Caelo
Edward Higginbottom, Choir of New College Oxford
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 1 janv. 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
40 Most Beautiful Carols
Classique - Paru chez Warner Classics International le 13 déc. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Humfrey: Symphony Anthems
Consort of Voices, Instruments of Time and Truth, Edward Higginbottom
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Pan Classics le 6 avr. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Stabat Mater, Canticles & Motets
Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 1 janv. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wesley: Anthems
The Choir of New College, Oxford
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 1 janv. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Coronation Anthems
Academy of Ancient Music, Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Classique - Paru chez Decca Music Group Ltd. le 1 janv. 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orlande de Lassus: Mass 'Tous les regretz' & Motets
Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 17 mars 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Music for Salzburg Cathedral
Musique vocale sacrée - Paru chez Novum le 28 janv. 2014
5 de Diapason24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Maurice Greene, Select Anthems
Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 1 janv. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Coronation Anthems
Academy of Ancient Music, Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Classique - Paru chez Decca (UMO) le 1 janv. 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Carols from New College
Edward Higginbottom, Choir of New College Oxford
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 5 avr. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pièces de clavecin avec une méthode, Suite in E Minor, RCT 2: V. Le rappel des oiseaux (Arr. by Edward Higginbottom for Organ)
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 16 juin 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: The Sacred Choral Music
Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Classique - Paru chez Novum le 7 janv. 2013
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
A Ceremony of Carols
Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 1 janv. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Boyce: Select Anthems
Edward Higginbottom, Choir of New College Oxford
Classique - Paru chez CRD Records le 1 mars 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Evensong at New College Oxford (William Henry Harris - William Smith - Bible - Old Testament)
Classique - Paru chez Novum le 5 avr. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Oxford Anthems
The Choir of New College, Oxford
Classique - Paru chez Regis Records le 1 janv. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo