Simon Halsey is one of Britain's leading conductors, particularly renowned for his work with choirs.
He has been Chorus Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus for 25 years and is Chief Conductor of both the Berlin Radio Choir and Netherlands Radio Choir. He is Artistic Director and founder of the dynamic professional choir European Voices, and is in his fourth season as Principal Conductor, Choral Programme for The Sage Gateshead.
As chorus master Simon Halsey has formed close partnerships with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Edo de Waart, Valery Gergiev, Riccardo Chailly, Marek Janowski, Sakari Oramo, Kent Nagano, Claudio Abbado and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Alongside his role with City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus he is also Chief Conductor of both the Berlin and Netherlands Radio Choirs, Principal Conductor Choral Programme of The Sage Gateshead Artistic Director and founder of the dynamic professional choir European Voices, formed at the invitation of Sir Simon Rattle. Halsey also holds the position of consultant editor for Faber Music in the UK.
Halsey regularly conducts major choral projects with some of the world's greatest orchestras and choirs making his US debut conducting the Minnesota Orchestra in performances of Handel's Messiah and this season conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus on tour to Kuala Lumpur with Martyn Brabbins and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra performing Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony .
This season Halsey conducts the Berlin Radio Choir with two world premieres: Tavener's Solemntias in Conceptione at the Grossmünster Zürich and as chorus master a work by Jonathan Harvey commissioned by Halsey alongside Berliner Philarmoniker and the Semana des Musica Religiosa de Cuenca. Other highlights of the 07-08 season with the Berlin Radio Choir include performances of Berlioz's Te Deum with Abbado, Haydn's Die Schöpfung with Rattle and a performance of Brahms' Requiem at the World Choral Symposium in Denmark. Once again Halsey will conduct the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's popular 'Sing Along' concerts, this season with a performance of Carmina Burana and he will also conduct their annual Christmas Concerts at Birmingham's Symphony Hall. Halsey conducts the Netherlands Radio Choir with Handel's Dixit Dominus and will prepare the choir for performances of Schumann's Szenen aus Goethe's Faust with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Harnoncourt. With the Northern Sinfonia and Chorus, Halsey conducts Tavener's The Protecting Veil and Vivaldi's Gloria at The Sage Gateshead.
Halsey has worked on countless major recording projects, many of which have won major awards including several Gramophone Awards and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, most recently Halsey received a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance for the recording of Brahms' Requiem with Berliner Philarmoniker and Rattle. As conductor, recent releases include three new discs recorded with the Berlin Radio Choir: XL, a disc of choral music including works by Tallis, J.S Bach, Kodály and Harvey recorded on Harmonia Mundi, as well as Christian Jost's Angst and Simple Gifts, featuring works by Britten, Copland, Barber and Tippett, both on the Coviello label. With the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus Halsey has recorded Julian Anderson's Four American Choruses for NMC and English Choral Favourites for EMI.
Upcoming and recent releases as Chorus Master include Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms / Rattle for EMI with the Berliner Philarmoniker, Mahler Das Klagende Lied with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic on their own label, QuattroLive, and Elgar's Dream of Gerontius with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Oramo with Rundfunkchor Berlin, Groot Omroepkoor, and City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus respectively. Other landmark recordings include Beethoven's 9th Symphony on EMI, in a live recording with the the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and Vienna Philharmonic/Rattle, and Mahler's 2nd Symphony with CBSO/Rattle/Janet Baker and Arleen Augér on EMI.
Simon Halsey is represented by Intermusica.
February 2008 / 609 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.