Ep 33 John Wilson

In episode 33 Luke talks to an old friend of his, the conductor
John Wilson. John was born in Gateshead and studied composition
and conducting at the Royal College of Music, where in 2011 he
was made a Fellow. Back in 1994, he formed his own orchestra, the
John Wilson Orchestra, dedicated to performing music from the
golden age of Hollywood and Broadway, and with whom he has
appeared regularly across the UK, including at the BBC Proms
annually since 2009. In March 2019, John was awarded the
prestigious ISM Distinguished Musician Award for his services to
music.


He is now in demand at the highest level all over the world,
working with some of the finest orchestras and opera houses. In
the UK, he performs regularly at festivals such as Aldeburgh,
Glyndebourne and the BBC Proms with orchestras such as London
Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony and City of
Birmingham Symphony. Elsewhere, he has conducted the Royal
Concertgebouw, Budapest Festival, Swedish Radio Symphony, Oslo
Philharmonic and Sydney Symphony orchestras amongst others. He
made his opera debut in 2016 conducting Madam Butterfly at
Glyndebourne Festival Opera on their autumn tour and has since
conducted Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at English National Opera and
returned to Glyndebourne Summer Festival to conduct Massenet’s
Cinderella. John has a large and varied discography which
includes a series of discs with the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra exploring the works of Richard Rodney Bennett, with the
BBC Philharmonic devoted to the symphonic works of Aaron Copland
and numerous recordings with the John Wilson Orchestra. In 2019
Chandos released his first recording with the Sinfonia of London
which features Korngold’s Symphony in F Sharp.


In this conversation we discuss John’s earliest musical
experiences, then explore some big topics, such as the idea of
artistic perfection, why songs are central to John’s musical
world, the importance to him of community music making, and
whether you can listen to Ewartung while brushing your teeth
(Boulez thinks you can’t).