Munich Radio Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Chorus & Howard Arman
Biography Munich Radio Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Chorus & Howard Arman
Howard Arman
Versatility is one of the principal artistic concerns of London-born conductor, chorus master and composer Howard Arman, who since the autumn of 2016 has been the artistic director of the Bavarian Radio Chorus. As a result he has made a name for himself in every area of classical music, no matter what the period, genre or form, from Baroque concertos performed according to the tenets of historically informed performance practice to choral symphonies, operas, jazz programmes and singalong concerts that he himself presents and that are designed to appeal to the widest possible audiences. For many years Howard Arman has been professor of orchestral conducting at the Lucerne School of Music.
Howard Arman studied at Trinity College of Music in London before working with a number of leading English ensembles and quickly extending his field of activity to mainland Europe. In Germany he has worked with the choirs of NDR, SWR and RIAS Berlin. From 1983 to 2000 he conducted the Salzburg Bach Choir and from 1998 to 2013 was artistic director of the MDR Choir in Leipzig. He first appeared at the Salzburg Festival in 1995. In addition to his international commitments as a choral and orchestral conductor he has also conducted acclaimed productions at opera houses in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
He received the Handel Music Prize for reshaping the Handel Festival Orchestra on the occasion of its production of Orlando in 1996. From 2011 to July 2016 he was music director of the Lucerne Theatre. Among the opera productions that he conducted during that time were Handel’s Hercules, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Bizet’s Carmen and Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. In addition he conducted Metamorphosen, a work of dance theatre featuring his own compositions, and the world premiere of Johannes Maria Staud’s Die Antilope.
Beginning in 2002 Howard Arman was a frequent guest conductor of the Bavarian Radio Chorus. As the chorus’s principal conductor, he has produced several Christmas Classics and the ‘cOHRwürmer’ sing-along concerts and expanded its programme to include Handel’s rarely heard Occasional Oratorio as well as Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces, Rossini’s Stabat mater, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and the Monteverdi Vespers.
Arman’s lengthy discography contains recordings of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil and Graun’s Der Tod Jesu. Among his CD recordings with the Bavarian Radio Chorus are Handel’s Occasional Oratorio, Mozart’s C-minor Mass, Mendelssohn’s psalms, the Bach motets and the Christmas programmes (More) Christmas Surprises and Joy to the World.
