Adrian Partington
Adrian Partington is one of Britain's most active, and vigorous choral conductors. He has served as director of music at Gloucester Cathedral since 2007, while also having led several other prominent choirs. He is also noted as an organist, pianist, and educator.
Partington was born in Nottingham on October 1, 1958. His father was a pianist and his mother a violinist; they played sonatas in the evening and did not have a television in the house. As a chorister in the Worcester Cathedral Choir, he sang at the famed Three Choirs Festival when he was ten and was exposed to major choral works like Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Op. 123. Partington attended King's College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar. He also studied with Herbert Howells, at the Royal College of Music in London.
Partington's first professional post was at Worcester Cathedral, where he was assistant organist from 1981 to 1991. He gradually become more interested in conducting, however, and for many years he was active outside of cathedral settings. Partington prepared and conducted the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus and its associated Youth Chorus, under Simon Rattle's leadership in the 1990s. In 1999, he became director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales. This position also involved conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for several concerts each year. In 2000, he added the directorship of the Bristol Choral Society to his schedule. Partington made guest conducting appearances during this period with the BBC Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Chorus, and other top choirs. He continued in the Bristol post even after his appointment at Gloucester Cathedral in 2007. With this post, came other responsibilities: joint conductorship of the Three Choirs Festival, where he programmed the 2010 event for the first time, leading the world premiere of John Joubert's English Requiem, as well as the conductorship of the Gloucester Choral Society. He has appeared as an organ or piano soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, and other major orchestras. Despite the press of daily responsibilities at Gloucester, Partington has found time to organize, and conduct several recordings on the Priory and Lyrita labels. In 2019, he led the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in the world premiere recording of Charles Villiers Stanford's Mass "Via Victrix 1914-1918," Op. 173, on Lyrita.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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