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Paul Spicer began his musical training as a chorister at New College, Oxford. He studied with Herbert Howells and Richard Popplewell (organ) at the Royal
College of Music in London, winning the Walford Davies Organ Prize in his final year.He is best known as a choral conductor, particularly of the acclaimed Finzi Singers with whom he has now made 15 CDs for Chandos
records. He has conducted Bach Choirs in Chester and Leicester, and moved to conduct the Bach Choir in Birmingham in 1992. He conducts the Chamber Choirs at the Royal College of Music in London, where he is also Professor of Choral
Conducting, and the Birmingham Conservatoire. He also conducts the Whitehall Choir in London and gives Choral Workshops all over the UK, in Europe and the USA. He makes his first trip to Korea in 2003, where he will conduct a
week's workshops and concerts in Seoul. Until July 2001 Paul Spicer was Artistic Director of the Lichfield International Arts Festival and the Abbotsholme Arts Society, posts he relinquished in order to pursue a
completely freelance musical career. Earlier in his career he spent time as a teacher of music at Uppingham School and Ellesmere College, before moving on to become a recording producer. He was Senior Producer for BBC Radio 3 in
the Midlands until 1990, and today is in great demand as a recording producer and as a composer. His large-scale Easter Oratorio, commissioned for performance in Lichfield Cathedral in July 2000 was described by
The Independent as "almost operatic in its inherent drama" and as being "a major contribution to the choral society repertoire". He is currently working on a work for choir and winds (The Deciduous Cross)
based on five poems by R S Thomas commissioned for his tenth anniversary as conductor of the Birmingham Bach Choir. His highly acclaimed biography of his composition teacher, Herbert Howells, was published in 1998. |
