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Early Years
John Poole began to conduct
choirs and orchestras while an undergraduate at Oxford and gained further
experience directing concerts when he became organist of London University
Church and Musical Director at University College, London. He founded the Bloomsbury Singers and Players
and regularly conducted choral-orchestral concerts at St George’s Church,
Bloomsbury, where he first came to the attention of the B.B.C. conducting
orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Light Music Society and the London
Studio Players, and the (as then) B.B.C. Chorus.
B.B.C.
In 1968 he became
conductor of the B.B.C. Symphony Chorus and conducted his first Prom in
1973. In 1972 he became Director of the
B.B.C. Singers, a post he held until 1989.
Under his direction the Singers earned their reputation as one of
today’s premier professional choirs.
John has conducted the B.B.C. Symphony Chorus and particularly the
Singers in hundreds of broadcasts of music of all periods, including many first
performances and British premières. He
has conducted concerts by the Singers at the Proms (in both a cappella works
and with orchestra), at London’s South Bank, Barbican and St John’s Smith
Square, at major British and overseas Festivals and on tour throughout North
and South America, Europe, Israel and the Gulf States.
From 1990 John Poole was
for three years Chief Guest Conductor of the Singers.
Groupe Vocal de France
From 1990-95, John Poole
was Music Director of the Groupe Vocal de France which specialised in
contemporary repertoire and gave concerts regularly in Paris, throughout France
and internationally. With members of
the Groupe Vocal, he organised and directed highly successful summer schools
for conductors and singers in France.
Other work
Throughout his career he
was engaged as a guest conductor by major choirs and orchestras in Europe,
Scandinavia and as far afield as New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong. He is a committed advocate of new music and was
involved in commissioning works from established composers as well as promising
younger ones. He has a special interest
in working with singers, conductors and composers and had regular contact with
young people through courses and master classes.
In 1996 he founded the
Acadèmie Internationale in Parthenay, France, a workshop designed for
singers and professional conductors and included commissioned works from
composers such as Giles Swayne, Carl Rütti and Olivier Greif.
In August 2001,
John Poole joined the conducting staff in the School of Music at the University of Indiana
in Bloomington, USA, where he conducted many concerts, including the American première of Sven-David
Sandström's High Mass in November 2001.
In 2004 John conducted his 70th birthday concert in St. Paul's church, Knightsbridge with the BBC Singers in a programme which included the London Premiere of Giles Swayne's Stabat Mater.
In May 2005 Triton Records (see Links) launched John's recording of Olivier Greif's Requiem with the BBC Singers. He premiered this work in 2001 and gave the US premiere in 2004. In 2005 he gave the US premiere of Swayne's Stabat Mater.
In February 2006 John conducted performances of Mozart's Requiem for the American Mozart Society in Bloomington and in Chicago for the American Choral Directors Association.
In June and July 2006 he directed performances and workshops of Mozart's choral and orchestral music in Vienna (see Links).
In 2009 he retired to France, where he still lives.
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