Newent Orchestra Conductor and Music Director
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Michael Turner was born in Birmingham. He studied violin, viola and percussion in his youth, beginning his first studies of conducting in the 1980s attending courses with John Carewe and George Hurst. He also received tuition from Hilary Davan Wetton who instilled in him a desire to follow the same conducting technique as he had learnt from Sir Adrian Boult. While studying Music at Leicester University, Michael formed the Studio 9 Chamber Orchestra, in Birmingham, which gave a number of concerts at the Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham receiving critical acclaim.
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Michael was appointed Music Director of the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra in 1996 and the Oswestry Sinfonia in 2014. He made his professional conducting debut with the Milton Keynes City Orchestra in 1995 and has worked with a number of professional ensembles including the Manchester Camerata. Michael founded and is Music Director of the Shropshire Hills Ensemble and Orchestra. As a choral director, he has worked with choirs including the University of Leicester Singers, City Voices (Birmingham), Harlington Festival Chorus, the Birmingham Singers, the Marches Community Choir (Shropshire) and the More Singers (Shropshire). Michael was Assistant Conductor of the Phoenix Singers (Shrewsbury) for a number of years and is currently Music Director of (Church) Stretton Choral Society and New College Chorale in Wellington, Shropshire.
An active composer, Michael has written extensively for choral and orchestral forces. His work The Deluge was premiered by The Phoenix Orchestra (in Birmingham) in 1986, while the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra has premiered his works Dance Sketches, Waiitouque Celebration, Then Only the Empty Spaces, A War Song Medley and concertos for Horn and violin.His most recent composition of note was a brass band commission for the Jackfield Band, Coalport 1799, premiered at the 2024 Ironbridge Brass Band Festival.
Michael has always combined his work as a practicing musician with posts in other areas of music and the cultural world. He has worked in the record industry, arts administration and management in the festivals field and lectured in music and copyright.
An active composer, Michael has written extensively for choral and orchestral forces. His work The Deluge was premiered by The Phoenix Orchestra (in Birmingham) in 1986, while the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra has premiered his works Dance Sketches, Waiitouque Celebration, Then Only the Empty Spaces, A War Song Medley and concertos for Horn and violin.His most recent composition of note was a brass band commission for the Jackfield Band, Coalport 1799, premiered at the 2024 Ironbridge Brass Band Festival.
Michael has always combined his work as a practicing musician with posts in other areas of music and the cultural world. He has worked in the record industry, arts administration and management in the festivals field and lectured in music and copyright.