Hilary Davan Wetton

Veteran conductor Hilary Davan Wetton founded and, for many years, directed several major choral and instrumental ensembles. Active into old age, he served into the 2020s as musical director of the City of London Choir and as associate conductor of the London Mozart Players. Davan Wetton was born on December 23, 1943. He attended Westminster School and went on to Oxford University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees. Davan Wetton has had an interest in the musical education of young people for much of his career, and he spent some years as director of music at Cranleigh School, St. Paul's Girls School, and Tonbridge School. He has also directed several British youth orchestras. He became the conductor of the Guildford Choral Society in 1968 and remained in that position until 2008. Davan Wetton founded the Milton Keynes City Orchestra and served as its conductor from 1975 to 2007, remaining active after that as conductor emeritus. He also founded the Holst Singers and conducted that group from 1978 to 1992. With the Holst Singers, he made several well-regarded recordings, beginning with Holst: The Evening Watch and Other Choral Music in 1989 on the Hyperion label. Davan Wetton has also conducted opera (with Britain's Travelling Opera, where he led productions of Mozart's Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro, Bizet's Carmen, and Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia) and ballet (for France's Ballet du Nord, where he led a dance version of Mozart's Requiem, K. 626, among other productions). He has held various positions at educational institutions, including the Birmingham Conservatoire, whose orchestra he conducted from 1983 to 1987; the Guildhall School of Music, where he served as professor from 2011 to 2013; and Somerville College, Oxford, where he held the position of music associate from 2015 to 2018. Davan Wetton remained active into old age, making many recordings for Hyperion and Naxos before moving to Resonus Classics in 2023 for a recording of works by Vaughan Williams with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. ~ James Manheim, Rovi