Paul McCreesh is an English conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

.

Paul McCreesh is founder and artistic director of the Gabrieli Consort & Players, with whom he has established himself at the highest level in the period instrument field; he is recognised for his authoritative and innovative performances on the concert platform and the opera house. He is director of the Wratislavia Cantans Festival

Wratislavia Cantans

Wratislavia Cantans, also referred to as the International Festival of Oratorio and Cantata Music, is held every September in Wrocław...

 in Wrocław, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. With the Gabrieli Consort and Players, Paul McCreesh has performed in major concert halls and festivals across the world. In 2005 Loughborough University

Loughborough University

Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...

 conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters

Doctor of Letters

Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...

, honoris causa, on Paul McCreesh.

Repertoire and performance

Paul McCreesh specialises in the music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. He also works with modern instrument orchestras including the DSO Berlin, RSO Berlin, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Sinfónica de Euskadi, Stockholm Philharmonic and Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Netherlands Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma.

Musical education

McCreesh began his career as a cellist and took his MusB from the University of Manchester

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

 in 1981.

Debut

McCreesh’s directing début was at St John's, Smith Square in London, and a sensational Proms début led to an early signing with Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...

's Archiv label.

Opera

McCreesh has conducted Handel

HANDEL

HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....

’s Jephtha

Jephtha

Jephthah is a character in the Old Testament's Book of Judges, serving as a judge over Israel for a period of six years . He lived in Gilead and was a member of the Tribe of Manasseh. His father's name was also Gilead...

for Welsh National Opera

Welsh National Opera

Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...

 and Gluck's Orphée & Eurydice, as well as Mozart’s The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....

for Royal Danish Opera and, for Komische Oper Berlin

Komische Oper Berlin

The Komische Oper Berlin is an opera company in Berlin, Germany, which specializes in German language productions of opera, operetta and musicals....

, a new David Alden staging of Handel’s Alcina

Alcina

Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of L'isola di Alcina, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after, during his travels in Italy...

. He has also conducted Handel’s Rodelinda at the Beaune Festival and at the Brinkburn Festival which he founded and directs.

External links

• The Gabrieli Consort & Players
• Brinkburn Festival
• The Monteverdi violins Info about the Gabrielis' replica Baroque violins