Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra, Clark Rundell & Mark Heron
Biographie Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra, Clark Rundell & Mark Heron
The Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra
is recognised as one of the leading conservatoire ensembles in the world. Through a unique series of concerts, commissions, broadcasts and over 30 professional recordings, the RNCM Wind Orchestra has transformed the repertoire and performance standards of wind ensemble music.
The RNCM Wind Orchestra was the first conservatoire ensemble to be invited to perform at the BBC Promenade Concerts, and has also performed at Festivals such as Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Huddersfield, Lichfield, Spitalfields, Malvern and Three Choirs, as well as festivals in Holland, Japan, Switzerland and Poland.
The Orchestra has commissioned and given world premieres of major works by composers including Sir Malcolm Arnold, David Bedford, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Michael Berkeley, Judith Bingham, Martin Butler, Gary Carpenter, John Casken, Nigel Clarke, Martin Ellerby, Anthony Gilbert, Adam Gorb, Edward Gregson, Kenneth Hesketh, David Horn, Gordon Jacob, Stephen McNeff and Geoffrey Poole as well as dozens of UK premieres.
In 2000, the RNCM was presented with a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education for the College’s outstanding and pioneering work with the Wind Orchestra. Queen Elizabeth II presented former RNCM Principal Edward Gregson and Timothy Reynish with the award at a special awards ceremony held at Buckingham Palace.
They gave the UK premiere of Stockhausen’s Lucifer’s Dance as the grand finale of a major Stockhausen retrospective at the Royal Festival Hall in London and have since been invited to perform at the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) Conference in Cincinnati, USA and the World Saxophone Congress in Scotland.
Clark Rundell
Renowned for his command of the most intricate and demanding of works, Clark Rundell has established himself as a highly sought-after guest conductor. His repertoire ranges from music of the 18th Century to the current day, encompassing many genres from large scale works for choir and orchestra to the small ensemble.
He recently made his debuts with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Klangforum Wien, and the SWR-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, all of whom immediately re-invited him to conduct over the next few seasons.He works regularly with orchestras and ensembles including all of the BBC orchestras, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Ensemble 10/10 and Asko Schoenberg.
His conducting in the opera house has included premiere performances of James MacMillan’s opera Clemencyat the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Orlando Gough’s Voices & Votes at the Bergen International Festival. Other operas he has conducted include Albert Herring, The Turn of the Screw, Carmen, Kat’a Kabanova, Street Scene, L’Heure Espagnole, The Cunning Little Vixen and L’Enfant et les sortilèges.
Deeply committed to the performance of new music, Clark Rundell has given world premières of works by composers such as Louis Andriessen, Steve Reich, Mark-Anthony Turnage, James MacMillan, Django Bates, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Gary Carpenter, Tim Garland, Adam Gorb, David Horne, Steve Mackey, Steve Martland, Martijn Padding, Gwilym Simcock and Joey Roukens.
As an arranger, he has collaborated with Louis Andriessen on a suite from Andriessen’s opera Rosa, entitled Rosa’s Horses, which was premiered by Clark Rundell and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, at Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. The pair also collaborated on Vermeer Pictures, a suite from Andriessen’s opera Writing to Vermeer, which was also performed at Het Concertgebouw to great critical acclaim. Clark Rundell is working on further suites of Louis Andriessen’s more recent operas.
A specialist in cross-genre collaboration, he has conducted extensive orchestral projects with artists such as Elvis Costello, Wayne Shorter Quartet, Esperanza Spalding, Toumani Diabate, Brad Mehldau, Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock. A highly versatile musician, Rundell has also performed with artists such as John Dankworth, Bob Brookmeyer, Victor Mendoza, Guy Barker, Julian Argüelles, Ed Thigpen, Cleo Laine, Andy Sheppard, Lew Tabakin and Michael Gibbs.
He is passionate about working with young people and is Professor of Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and has a close relationship with the Netherlands Orchestral Academy.
Clark Rundell spent much of his childhood in Bloomington, Minnesota. He studied conducting at the Northwestern University, Chicago with John Paynter and trombone with Frank Crisafulli, and was subsequently awarded a Junior Fellowship to study conducting with Timothy Reynish at the Royal Northern College of Music. He now lives just outside Manchester with his wife and two children.
