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Graham Jordan Ellis is a native of Cheshire and has been associated with the musical life of Merseyside and the North West since graduating from Liverpool University, having studied as an organist with Dr Caleb Jarvis and Dr Noel Rawsthorne, as a pianist with Edwen Williams-Laramee, and as a ‘cellist with the late William Jenkins, founder and conductor of the Merseyside Youth Orchestra. Since then, he has achieved a considerable reputation as an experienced freelance conductor of both choral and orchestral music, working with many choral and operatic societies and with amateur, youth and professional orchestras, including Das Schwäbische Symphonie-Orchester of West Germany, Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Liverpool Baroque Orchestra, Northern Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1990 he founded the Liverpool Sinfonia, an orchestra of freelance professional players which appears with him regularly both accompanying choral concerts and in their own right. Graham has also worked for BBC radio and television, is conductor of the St Peter’s Singers and Orchestra and Director of Music at Birkenhead School, whose Chapel Choir has performed throughout this country and in Northern France, Venice, Verona, Florence, Prague and Vienna.
In 1996 Graham was invited to take up the position of Music Director to the Chester Music Society, having been guest conductor for their Golden Jubilee concert, performing Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, Bax Tintagel and the North West première of Finzi Requiem da Camera. In 1999 he was appointed Director of Music to the Liverpool Welsh Choral Union, which celebrated its Centenary in 2000 under his direction. For this occasion he was commissioned to write the choral work Degrees of Joy which received its première in the choir’s Centenary Gala Concert with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and with whom he subsequently conducted an acclaimed performance of Elgar The Kingdom. Engagements have included performances of Orff Carmina Burana, Finzi Intimations of Mortality, Britten War Requiem, Puccini Messa di Gloria, Verdi Aida, Elgar The Music Makers, Verdi Requiem, a special performance of Elgar The Dream of Gerontius in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral with the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and a chorus of 300 voices to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the work’s first performance, and a series of Gala Carol Concerts with actresses Patricia Routledge and Jean Boht in support of local and national charities. Recent notable performances have included Elgar Cello Concerto with Peter Dixon, Gershwin Porgy and Bess and Rhapsody in Blue with Martin Roscoe and the NCO, Bernstein West Side Story, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Handel Messiah, Bach St Matthew Passion, Bach Mass in B minor, Blackford Mirror of Perfection and an evening of Gilbert and Sullivan with the Northern Chamber Orchestra.
Particularly known for his choral direction and his championing of British music from Elgar to Howells, Graham Jordan Ellis is always pleased to receive enquiries from choirs and orchestras regarding engagements for “one-off” concerts, short or long term contracts.
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