Patron

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For 50 years Sir Roger Norrington has been at the forefront of the movement for historically informed performance. He has sought to put modern musicians in touch with the style of the music they play. Sir Roger sang and played the violin from a young age, and began to conduct at Cambridge. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Sir Adrian Boult. His Heinrich Schütz Choir made many recordings, and his London Classical Players achieved worldwide fame with their dramatic recordings of the nine Beethoven Symphonies, and many other works.

As early as 1966 Norrington was made Music Director of Kent Opera. He conducted many hundreds of performances for the company and went on to work at Covent Garden and the English National Opera, for La Scala and La Fenice, and at the Vienna Staatsoper.

Norrington is a frequent guest with many of the world's major orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and the Philadelphia and Philharmonia Orchestras. He has had notable tenures as Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (13 years) and the Salzburg Camerata (ten years).

Other permanent posts with orchestras have included Chief Conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Music Director of the Orchestra of St Luke's in New York, Principal Conductor of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Chief Guest Conductor of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, and Conductor Emeritus of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has made over 150 recordings.

Sir Roger Norrington became Covent Garden Sinfonia's patron in June 2010.