“The Boston Symphony Orchestra has reached across the Atlantic to find a successor to Tanglewood Festival Chorus founder John Oliver,” writes Michael Blanchard in Thursday’s (2/2) Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Mass.). “London-born James Burton has been named BSO Choral Director, a newly established title, and conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, succeeding Conductor Laureate Oliver, who retired in 2015…. Burton’s contract runs through the 2021-22 season…. While he doesn’t begin his full time schedule with the BSO and the TFC until the start of the 2017 Tanglewood season, Burton’s appointment begins immediately with Symphony Hall performances Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Tuesday evening at 8 of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, conducted by BSO music director Andris Nelsons, for which Burton prepared the singers…. In the 2016 season, he led the TFC’s annual Friday Prelude Concert … and was guest chorus conductor for the BSO’s season-ending performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony…. Since 2002 he has been music director of the chamber choir Schola Cantorum of Oxford. From 2002-09 he served as choral director at the Hall Orchestra in Manchester, England…. He has … served on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Paris, and English National Opera, among others.”
Posted February 3, 2017
