Raymond John Leppard,
CBE (born 11 August
1927) is a British
conductor and harpsichordist.
He was
born in London
and grew up
in Bath
, where he
was educated at the City of Bath Boys' School, now known as the
Beechen Cliff
School
. A student of harpsichord and viola at Trinity College
, Cambridge
, he also was active as a choral conductor and
served as music director of the Cambridge Philharmonic
Society.
In the 1960s, Leppard played an instrumental role in the rebirth of
interest in
baroque music; in
particular, he was one of the first major conductors to perform
baroque opera.
Career
In 1952 he made his London debut and then conducted his own Leppard
Ensemble. He became closely associated with the Goldsbrough
Orchestra, which became the
English Chamber Orchestra in 1960.
Also, he gave recitals as harpsichordist, and was a fellow of
Trinity College and a lecturer on music from 1958 to 1968. He
retired from his post as Director of Music at Trinity College in
1968, being succeeded by
Richard
Marlow.
In 1957 he conducted a concert featuring the four harpsichordists
George Malcolm,
Eileen Joyce,
Thurston
Dart and
Denis Vaughan. In 1969 he
himself was one of the 4 harpsichordists in a similar concert, this
time the other players being Eileen Joyce,
Geoffrey Parsons and
Simon Preston, with the
Academy of St. Martin in the
Fields under
Neville
Marriner.
His interest in early music prompted him to prepare several
realisations of scores from the period. While musicologists
considered his editions controversial, his performances were
important for introducing early operatic masterpieces to the
general public. His production of
Monteverdi's
L'incoronazione di Poppea was
presented at the
Glyndebourne
Festival under his direction in 1962. In the following years he
subsequently prepared more operas by Monteverdi, as well as operas
by
Francesco Cavalli.
In 1963 he wrote the soundtrack for
Peter
Brook's
Lord of
the Flies, the film adaptation of
William Golding's novel of the same
name.
In November 1969, he made his USA debut conducting the Westminster
Choir and
New York
Philharmonic, at which occasion he also appeared as soloist in
the
Joseph Haydn's
Harpsichord
Concerto in D major.
In 1973 he became principal conductor of the
BBC Northern Symphony
Orchestra in Manchester
, a position he retained until 1980.
Leppard has also conducted
Britten's
Billy Budd at the
Metropolitan and
San Francisco Operas,
Alceste and
Alcina at the
New
York City Opera.
He has also conducted at the Royal Opera
House
, Covent Garden and in Paris
, Hamburg
, Santa Fe
, Stockholm
, and Geneva
.
At Glyndebourne, he conducted the world premiere of
Nicholas Maw's
Rising of the Moon.
From 1987-2001, Leppard was the music director of the
Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra, where he collaborated with concertmaster Hidetaro
Suzuki for 14 seasons. For 2004-2006 he served as Music Advisor to
The Louisville Orchestra.
Leppard also serves as Artist-in-Residence at
the University
of Indianapolis
.
Raymond Leppard was appointed a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire
(CBE) by
The
Queen.
In 1973 the Republic of Italy
conferred
upon him the title of Commendatore della Republica Italiana for
services to Italian music.
Notes
- Eileen Joyce (1908-1991) Timeline
External links