PATRONS
Goldsmiths Choral Union is proud to be associated with three outstanding musicians
Patrons:
Simon Halsey (CBE), James Burton, Neil Jenkins,
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.
Portrait by Robert Torres
Meet GCU’s new patron, James Burton.
We are delighted to welcome James Burton as our patron. James is an internationally renowned conductor, composer and passionate advocate of singing. He has conducted leading British and international orchestras and choirs, including the BBC Singers, Tenebrae, OAE, Handel and Haydn Society, RSNO, Ulster Orchestra, the Hallé, Aalborg Symphony and Mexico’s National Symphony Orchestra. James recently returned to the UK following an eight year tenure as the Boston Symphony Orchestra Choral Director and Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and he was also Director of Orchestral Activities at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. From autumn 2027 James will be the Artistic Director of Ex Cathedra.
James delighted members of GCU with his brilliant, informative, lively and inspiring rehearsals in preparation for our recent performance of Brahms’ Requiem.
Read more about James here: James Burton (conductor) - Wikipedia
“It was a great pleasure to meet the singers of GCU earlier this year, and I was so impressed by their commitment to the group, to their singing and to the music they were rehearsing. I am honoured to be asked to become their patron and to be involved with the choir, and am looking forward to developing a relationship with them and their fantastic music director Jack Apperley in the coming years.” James Burton, 2026.
Meet GCU’s Patron - Simon Halsey, CBE
Artistic Advisor and Choral Director, Oslo Philharmonic
Principal Guest Conductor and Choral Ambassador, Orfeó Català Choirs, Barcelona
Conductor Laureate, Rundfunkchor Berlin
Chorus Director, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Choruses
Choral Director Emeritus, London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Principal Guest Conductor, WDR Rundfunkchor
Professor and Director of Choral Activities, University of Birmingham
Professor, Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía
Simon has worked with orchestras and choirs all over the world and has been involved with numerous recordings. He has won several awards, including three GRAMMY’s for Best Choral Performance - one in 2008 for a recording of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem.
In 2010 Simon worked on a collaboration with Sir Simon Rattle and the American Director Peter Sellars on the ground-breaking ‘ritualization’ of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, performed and semi-staged with the Berlin Philharmonic in the beautiful space of the Grand Hall of the Philharmonie in Berlin. Simon rehearsed his Rudfunkchoir who sang off copy.
Simon has since gone on to have huge success with the Human Requiem, a project which stems from Brahms’s German Requiem and was first performed in Berlin with the Rundfunkchor. He will conduct Human Requiem again in June 2026 with the choirs of Orféo Català, with whom he is principal guest conductor and choral ambassador.
To understand Simon’s unique qualities as a chorus master and to appreciate the ability he has to interpret the instructions of conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle set against the theatrical wishes of a director like Peter Sellars, there is an enlightening conversation between Simon Halsey and Peter Sellars to be found on YouTube. These excerpts are Peter speaking about Simon:
‘You always have this brilliant way of giving the chorus a super-practical thing that creates an utterly mysterious, haunting, profound reality’ and
‘Your astounding radar, when you know when to move in on some pin point, and it shifts the entire meaning just because you gave this tiny little note, and the whole piece suddenly opens.’
Simon is thrilled to be part of the ambition and development of GCU and to support out outstanding music director, Jack Apperley. He says ‘Exciting things are happening - come and see for yourself!’
GCU is honoured and delighted Simon has agreed to become the choir’s Patron.
(More information from ‘Intermusica - Simon Halsey’)