The British Choral Institute

Roy Wales

Roy Wales first conducted a youth choir at the age of fifteen in Guernsey where he grew up and went to school. Since that time he has enjoyed a distinguished career in various aspects of music education, performance and music and arts management. He has held positions as a Music Inspector for the Essex County Education Committee, Director of Music at the University of Warwick, Director of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Australia, Professor and Dean of the Birmingham Conservatoire and County Director of Music for East Sussex. He was awarded an MA from the City University and gained his Doctorate at the University of Washington where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

As a conductor he has worked with many professional orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Leipzig Chamber Orchestra, Israel Camerata, Hungarian Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Symphony Orchestra, Bloemfontein Symphony Orchestra in South Africa and several of the Australian Broadcasting Commission orchestras. For 17 years he was Founder/Director of the international prize-winning London Chorale and he has conducted many choirs in this country and abroad including the BBC Singers, the Budapest Monteverdi Choir and the Australian Brisbane Chorale which he formed in 1983.

Dr. Wales was Chairman of the Association of British Choral Directors for four years (1989-1993), Founder/President of the Australian Choral Conductors' Association - now Australian National Choral Association - (1984-1987) and has directed fifteen music and arts festivals during the last 30 years in England, France, Australia and Hungary, including an International University Choral Festival, an International Youth Choral Festival, a Festival of Scandinavian Music, 3 Anglo-French Choral Festivals in Paris and Chartres and an Anglo-Hungarian Festival in Hungary. Roy Wales has been a member of the Jury at a number of International Choral Festivals in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Eire and Jersey.

He toured to China with the English Concert Singers in 2001 and conducted the Verdi 'Requiem' in Australia in August of the same year. Last year he directed the Hungarian Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra in Hungary and conducted 'Messiah' in Accra, Ghana, with the Ghana National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. In May 2003 he conducted 'Carmina Burana' with the Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra and Festival Chorus in Poland. In 2003 he conducted the English Concert Singers on their concert tour of the West Indies.

In 2004 he will be on the Jury of International Choral Festivals in Germany, Italy and Jersey. Roy Wales is currently Music Director of the English Concert Orchestra and English Concert Singers/Chorus. He has been Director of the British Choral Institute since 1993, directing many national workshops and international vacation choral study courses and summer schools. He is also Director of the Cornwall International Male Voice Choral Festival. The 2^nd Festival will be held from April 28-May 2, 2005.