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Stephen Bell
Principal Horn
A graduate of London’s Royal College
of Music, Stephen Bell now enjoys a wide-ranging career encompassing orchestral
playing, chamber music, solo recitals, concerto performances and conducting.
He studied horn with Robert Aspden, Douglas Moore and Timothy Brown, together
with a post-graduate conductor’s course at the RCM, under the late Norman
Del-Mar. In addition to his posts as Principal Horn of both the BBC Concert
Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia, Stephen regularly appears a Guest Principal
with many of the UK ’s orchestras including London Philharmonic, Royal
Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia , BBC
Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
An active chamber musician,
Stephen appears with ensembles such as the Albion, and performs regularly
with the Lindsay String Quartet. He has been solo horn with the Haffner
Wind Ensemble since 1991 undertaking several recordings for BBC and commercial
release together with festival appearances at home and abroad including
the BBC Proms and a highly acclaimed New York debut in 2000. As a soloist,
he has performed concertos with orchestras such as Britten Sinfonia, Northern
Sinfonia, English Symphony Orchestra and for the BBC. Recent recordings
include The London Horn Sound for Cala Records, together with solo discs
for ASV and an all-Mozart disc for Classic FM released on the BMG label.
Stephen has had several works written for and dedicated to him, including
Four Seasonal Nocturnes by Roderick Elms, premiered on BBC Radio in 1999.
From 1995, Stephen spent nine years on the staff of the National Youth
Orchestra of Canada as Horn Faculty and Assistant Conductor. In recent
years he has been in increasing demand as Guest Conductor for several
UK orchestras including the Halle , Ulster Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic,
Brighton Philharmonic, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic, Manchester
Concert Orchestra, London Gala Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra,
working with artists as diverse as Stephen Hough, Guy Johnstone, John
Scott, Murray Maclachlan, Aled Jones, Bonaventura Bottone, Susan Bullock,
Alasdair Malloy, David Childs and Hayley Westenra. He is also Artistic
Director of the recently formed Elgar Chamber Orchestra whose debut CD
of English Oboe Concertos achieved rave reviews. Future conducting plans
include several concerts and broadcasts in the UK and abroad, including
a series of Summer Fireworks Concerts with artists such as G4 and the
Opera Babes and a return to the BBC Philharmonic to conduct the Last Night
of the Proms 2006. His most recent recording directing with the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra is due to be released in 2007.
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