The People Behind BSW
Keith Allen - Musical Director
Keith Allen was born and educated in London - he won a scholarship
to the Royal College of Music studying clarinet with Basil Tchaikov
and piano with Bernard Roberts. He subsequently undertook
post-graduate studies in Education at Birmingham University; has
been awarded a Fellowship of Trinity College, London, and also
holds a Bachelors degree from Kingston University and a Masters
degree from London College of Music & Media at Thames Valley
University. He held various posts with Birmingham Education
Department, finally from 1987 to 1992 being the Head of Music
Service for the city.
Keith is an experienced conductor and adjudicator who has been working with a wide range of orchestras, choirs and youth ensembles for a number of years. He has conducted at many of the major concert halls in the UK, including the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London; Fairfield Hall, Croydon; Symphony Hall and Town Hall in Birmingham.
Keith has been responsible for many premiere performances by British, American and European composers (Malcolm Arnold, Benjamin Britten, David Bedford, Mark Camphouse, Nigel Clarke, Michael Daugherty, Jonathan Dove, Soren Hyldgaard, Jay Kennedy, David Maslanka, David Matthews, Geoffrey Poole, Philip Sparke, Kit Turnbull and Guy Woolfenden) both in this country and abroad, and has worked with a number of distinguished soloists, including Katya Apekisheva (piano), Richard Baker (broadcaster), Robert Childs (euphonium), Jack Gibbons (piano), Evelyn Glennie (percussion), Philip Mead (piano), Linda Merrick (clarinet), John Nettles (actor), Craig Ogden (guitar), Simone Rebello (percussion), Owen Slade (tuba) and Frank Wibaut (piano).
Keith Allen is a Consultant Editor for Faber Music Ltd., Artistic Director of the National Concert Band Festival, Festival Manager of the 2004 London International Wind Band Festival and is a member of the National Executive of BASBWE. His conducting and adjudicating schedule includes work with music festivals in Bedford, Colchester, Eastbourne, Nottingham, Peterborough and Music for Youth, and tutoring on the European Youth Summer Music Course. At the end of 2001, he spent a month conducting and promoting British music in Australia and will be returning to the USA in December 2003 to promote British music at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, and also in May 2004 to conduct British repertoire in Minnesota, USA.
Guy Woolfenden OBE - Patron
With more than 150 scores for the Royal Shakespeare Company
and an impressive list of credits with major European theatre
companies, including the Comédie-Francaise, Paris,
the Burgtheater, Vienna, the National Theatre of Norway
and the Teatro di Stabile in Genoa, Guy Woolfenden's theatre
music is highly regarded throughout the world. During his
thirty-seven years as Head of Music to the RSC, he collaborated
with some of the world's finest directors, designers and
choreographers in many award-winning productions.
In collaboration with choreographer André Prokovsky, Guy has arranged the music for four full length ballets, which he has subsequently conducted in productions with The Australian Ballet, The Royal Ballet of Flanders, Hong Kong Ballet Company, Asami Maki Ballet, Tokyo, and Scottish Ballet. Guy conducted the acclaimed Russian premiere of Anna Karenina with the Kirov Ballet in St Petersburg.
Guy has conducted all the major British symphony orchestras and has conducted concerts in Canada, France and Germany. He has conducted many operas including the first British productions of Nielsen's Saul and David, Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans and Liszt's Don Sanche in London, and three productions with Scottish Opera.
Guy's compositions for wind orchestra are performed all over the world and many are recorded on CD. Guy is conductor of the Birmingham Conservatoire Wind Orchestra, which represented Britain at the WASBE Conference in Lucerne in 2001. Future plans include commissions for a wind chamber work, a flute concerto and a string quartet. Guy's Clarinet Concerto has recently been recorded by ASV, and there are plans to record a CD of his Shakespeare song settings.
Guy was the President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians 2002-2003, and is a past chairman of the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles. He was awarded a Fellowship of the Birmingham Schools of Music for his services to music in the Midlands in 1990, is an Honorary Member of the London College of Music and is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Guy Woolfenden was awarded an OBE in the 2007 New Year's Honours list for services to music.