Howarth, Elgar
Howarth, Elgar
Howarth, Elgar, English conductor and composer; b. Cannock, Staffordshire, Nov. 4, 1935. He studied at the Univ. of Manchester (Mus.B.) and at the Royal Manchester Coll. of Music. After playing trumpet in the orch. of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London (1958–63), he was principal trumpeter of the Royal Phil, of London (1963–69). He was a trumpeter with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble (1965–76) and the London Sinfonietta (1968–71). From 1970 he pursued a career as a conductor. In 1978 he conducted the premiere of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre in Stockholm, and in 1982 its first British performance at the English National Opera in London. In 1985 he made his debut at Covent Garden with Tippett’s King Priam.From 1985 to 1988 he was principal guest conductor of Opera North in Leeds. He conducted the premieres of Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus at the English National Opera in 1986, Gawain at Covent Garden in 1991, and The Second Mrs. Kong at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1994. In 1997 he conducted the British premiere of Strauss’s Die ägyptische Helena in Garsington. With Patrick Howarth, he publ. What a Performance! The Brass Band Plays…(London, 1988). He composed mainly for brass instruments.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire