Paul Hilliam
Music Director
Paul Hilliam was born in Canterbury and educated in Bournemouth. Following studies in London he worked as an oboist before turning to conducting. He now lives in Leicestershire.
While in London Paul formed the professional chamber orchestra London Camerata, receiving early encouragement from Lady Barbirolli and Ursula Vaughan Williams. He directed this Orchestra in concerts throughout the south east of England, appearing regularly at St John’s Smith Square, London and in the Canterbury International Orchestral Series. Since 1999 Paul has been the Principal Conductor and Musical Director of the Heart of England Orchestra.
Engagements have taken Paul to Britain’s most prestigious venues, such as the Barbican Hall in London, Symphony Hall in Birmingham, St. David’s Hall in Cardiff and Buxton Opera House. His work abroad has included concerts and radio broadcasts in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and America. In 2001 Paul conducted the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra in the USA in a performance of ‘Harmonic Rhythm’, a new concerto for timpani by the American composer, Russell Peck. He returned to America for further concerts in 2008.
In England he has conducted premiere performances of works by British composers including Douglas Coombes, Jeremy Pike and Paul Sudlow and by the Russian composer Andrey Rubstov. Popular presenters with whom Paul has worked include Brian Kay of BBC Radio 3 and John Suchet (ITN News).
Alongside Paul’s work with professional orchestras, he is involved in conducting concerts for a wide range of amateur orchestras and choirs. Local orchestras he has worked with include the Bardi Orchestra, Leicester Symphony Orchestra, Charnwood Orchestra, Stamford Chamber Orchestra and Peterborough Symphony Orchestra. He also enjoys conducting concerts for children. His educational work has included a workshop with members of the Philharmonia, concerts with young soloists from the Birmingham School’s Symphony Orchestra and several interactive schools concerts with the Heart of England Orchestra.
In 2007 Paul was appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Rutland Sinfonia.
David Calow
Associate Conductor
David Calow was born and educated in Leicestershire, receiving his early musical training from the Leicestershire School of Music. He played flute and piccolo in The National Youth Wind Orchestra from 1978-84, under the baton of Harry Legge, a renowned expert on the Symphonic Band repertoire. David is now Creative Director of CalowCraddock design and Illustration studio in Leicester. On returning to Leicester after college, David founded the wind ensemble ‘Musicamici’, which he has conducted for 30 years.
David now divides his musical life between conducting, teaching the flute and playing flute and piccolo with the Bardi Symphony Orchestra.
In 2007 David was appointed Associate Conductor of the Rutland Sinfonia. He has continued with Music Director Paul Hilliam, to develop the adventurous concert programming for the Sinfonia with performances of the rarely heard Horn Concerto by Franz Strauss, a Scandinavian programme featuring Nielsen for the first time and a completed version of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony by Professor Brian Newbould. The 35th Anniversary Season saw David conduct the East Midlands premiere of Prof. Newbould’s realisation of Schubert’s seventh symphony, in 2012 the Tuba Concerto by Vaughan Williams and in 2013 a rare performance of an authentic 19th century version of Mendelssohn’s E minor Violin Concerto in an arrangement for flute. The 40th Anniversary Season ‘Piano at the Movies’ concert followed on the heels of the highly successful ‘Magic of the Musicals’ ventures which presented the best of the Broadway and West End blockbusters to large and enthusiastic audiences for the first time in Oakham. Last season saw David conduct a sell out concert of Hollywood and Oscar-winning film scores in ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’ to the largest audience ever seen at a Sinfonia concert!
In 1995 David was appointed Music Director of the I.D.O.L.S Operatic Group in Leicester for their Little Theatre production of South Pacific. Over the following ten years he directed ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’, ‘Oklahoma!’, ‘The King and I’, ‘Guys & Dolls’, ‘Mack and Mabel’, ‘Anything Goes’ and ‘Kiss Me Kate’. David also worked with the production team and cast on 3 original shows and the critically acclaimed Little Theatre premiere of ‘The Best Little Whore House in Texas’. He has also directed full productions of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘Godspell’.
David became Music Director and Conductor of the Bardi Wind Orchestra in 1996. The Wind Orchestra now has an enviable reputation performing at major fund raising gala concerts each year at De Montfort Hall in Leicester and at the Bradgate Park Prom concerts. Recent years have also seen David increasingly in demand as a conductor elsewhere working with the Bardi Symphony Orchestra, Warwick Orchestral Winds and The University of Leicester Orchestra and Wind Band.
David was appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Leicester-based Clarendon Park Orchestra in January 2015 and is enjoying working with and encouraging an enthusiastic group of local musicians.