JOLYON DODGSON

Bass-baritone

Conductor

Following a thorough musical training as a choir-boy in Hereford and Chester Cathedrals, Jolyon Dodgson went on to study at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where one of his tutors was Heddle Nash. He was one of the first members of the BBC Northern Singers, as it was then called, and on their change of status to the Britten Singers he became their Manager. He was for many years a ‘Songman’ at York Minster and one of the first regular performers in the long-running early television programme "Music for You".

Jolyon Dodgson was the first tutor in vocal studies at the University of Lancaster, where he conducted the University Choral Society and the Chamber Choir and several productions in the Nuffield Theatre. He later became the Director of the MacRobert Arts Centre at the University of Stirling, and Chorus-Master and Conductor of the BBC Scottish Singers. He has performed in many hundreds of radio and television broadcasts, gramophone recordings and concert tours, in this country and abroad.  He now runs this concert agency business, sings regularly as a Lay Clerk in the choir at Carlisle Cathedral, directs and conducts his new professional ensemble Voices of the North, and undertakes many singing and conducting engagements.

During the course of a long and distinguished musical career Jolyon Dodgson has performed in most of the major Festivals and concert halls in the UK and many overseas, in addition to his radio and television appearances. His work has taken him on concert tours of Australia, Iceland, Hong Kong, Poland, Thailand, Turkey, Zimbabwe, and most of the European and Scandinavian countries. Of the standard oratorio and choral/orchestral repertoire there is very little he has not performed, either as soloist or conductor, and he has also performed very many lesser-known works and some first performances by such as Elizabeth Maconchy, John McCabe, William Walton, John Taverner.  He has worked with many of the legendary names in the conducting and composing world, including Adrian Boult, John Barbirolli, Charles Groves, Richard Hickox, Charles Mackerras, Simon Rattle, David Wilcocks, John Taverner, Claudio Abbado and many others.

Jolyon Dodgson was born in Hereford, but has lived in the Lake District for many years. He serves on many music and arts committees, both in the north and in London. He is a former Vice-Chairman of the Concert and Session Singers Committee of British Actors' Equity, and his name is among the distinguished list of Past Wardens of the Performers and Composers Section of the Incorporated Society of Musicians. In Cumbria he is a former Trustee and Chairman of Eden Arts Trust based in Penrith and is currently a Trustee of  the Westmorland Music Council in Kendal and Chairman of Carlisle Festival.