Colin Howard

Colin Howard Choirmaster/conductor

Colin Howard was a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and studied piano & cello at the RCM where he was a conducting scholar, President of the Students' Association, winner of the Director's Special Prize and an Adrian Boult Prize. His conducting work has included The Finchley Children's Music Group, Chelsea Opera Group, Guildford Singers, Holst Singers & the Farrant Singers; a parallel career in education has encompassed the post of Director of Music at Canford, Highgate & The Purcell School. He has sung in chamber and cathedral choirs, notably the Sarum Consort, Exon Singers and the Cathedral Choirs of Salisbury and Winchester, with whom he has toured France, Germany, Holland, South Africa and the United States. He is a founder member of Golden Consort.

Colin studied singing with Caroline Friend, Patricia Taylor & Nicholas Clapton; his work as a soloist has embraced the song cycles of Britten, Finzi, Schubert, Schumann, Tippett & Vaughan Williams. A CD of songs by Madeleine Dring, Ferguson, Howells, Roger Lord and Vaughan Williams made up a programme of world premiere recordings in 2012 with the pianists Barry Ferguson, Anna Roberts and oboist Evelyn Howard. He conducted two concerts last year given by the Sarum Consort and has directed the Orchestra of the Swan, Portsmouth City Orchestra, North Devon Sinfonia and Salisbury Symphony Orchestra. Colin has directed the first performance of works by Gordon Crosse, Philip Lawson, Nicholas Maw, John Rutter, Robert Spearing & John Tavener, working with Tavener on the première of his opera Thérèse at the Royal Opera House. He sang at the funeral of Sir John Tavener at Winchester in November 2013.

As a pianist, he has worked with the oboist Nicholas Daniel, violinists Gisele Boll, Boris Kucharsky & Jan Peter Schmolck, the singers Thomas Hemsley & John Noble and the cellist Steven Isserlis. He is currently a member of the music staff at Bryanston School, an examiner for ABRSM, Director of Music of the Dorchester Choral Society and chorus-master for the Two Moors Festival.