Renowned conductor Sir Roger Norrington has died aged 91.

Sir Roger Norrington was born in Oxford in 1934. As a boy, he sang and played the violin, attending the Dragon School in Oxford and then London’s Westminster School. He went on to read English literature at Cambridge University, where he was also active as a choral conductor. He subsequently earned his living as an editor of scientific books, whilst also gaining valuable experience working with first-class amateur musicians. He eventually returned to his musical roots as a student at the Royal College of Music in London, which led to a professional career as a vocalist and conductor. In 1962 he founded the Schütz Choir and was appointed music director of Kent Opera in 1969. He worked in this latter capacity for fifteen years, conducting over 400 performances of more than 40 operas. In 1978 he founded the London Classical Players to experiment with period-style performance in orchestral repertoire composed between 1750 and 1900.

He went on to work at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and at English National Opera; also with the BBC Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Additionally, he was principal conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta. He conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Concertgebouw Orchester, the Orchestre de Paris, as well as orchestras in New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

From 1998 to 2011 Sir Roger Norrington was principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO), known today as the SWR Symphony Orchestra, subsequently becoming its conductor laureate. During his time with the RSO, he focused on period-style, historically informed performances, which became fundamental to his style. The use of historical instruments in a modern setting as required by his artistic credo meant that additional aspects needed to be considered, such as appropriate numbers of instrumentalists, historically informed bowing techniques, phrasing, tempo and articulation. Central to the historical accuracy of his performances was the maintaining of an original, pure tone, which had begun to be replaced in the early 20th century by continuous vibrato.

In addition to his worldwide activity as a guest conductor, Sir Roger Norrington led the Zürcher Kammerorchester between 2011 and 2016. He was knighted in 1997 and was awarded Germany’s Federal Cross of Merit in 2012. He announced his retirement from conducting in November 2021.

Sir Roger Norrington Biography & Discography