Gwyn Parry-Jones
Gwyn Parry-Jones is
currently Head of Music Activities at
the University of Reading, and has been
Musical Director of the University Choral
Society since 1996. Works that he has
performed with them in that time include
Mozart’s Requiem, Poulenc’s
Litanies de la Vierge Noire, Bernstein’s
Chichester Psalms, Haydn’s Harmony
Mass, Gorecki’s Totus Tuus, P?’s
Credo, and many more.
He was born in Cardiff, and studied
piano, bassoon and composition (with
Alun Hoddinott), before going on to
Manchester, where he read music concurrently
at the University of Manchester and
the Royal Northern College of Music,
emerging with MusB, GRSM, ARMCM and
PGCE. While still studying, he made
free-lance appearances with several
major orchestras, including Barbirolli’s
final recording session with the Hall?rchestra
(music by Delius). At this time, he
also taught at Chethams Specialist Music
School and the Junior Department of
the RNCM.
A period as Assistant Director of Music
at Millfield School in Somerset was
followed by a return to Manchester working
as an orchestral musician. He played
with the Hall?rchestra, the BBC Philharmonic
and the Liverpool Philharmonic, among
others, and also toured widely as a
performer, including visits to the Far
East and to Spain and the Balearic Islands.
At this time, he was also a member of
the BBC Northern Singers and conductor
of the Melandra Ensemble.
In 1980, he moved into Higher Education
as Senior Lecturer at Bulmershe College
in Reading, then in 1988 on to Reading
University, where he heads the music
specialist degree course in the School
of Education and is Director of Music
Activities. He has built up a considerable
reputation as a conductor of both choirs
and orchestras, and is also well known
as an adjudicator. This year, he will
again be Chair of the panel in the National
Festival of Youth Orchestras at the
Royal Festival Hall.
Gwyn has directed a number of music
courses, including the Keele University
International Chamber Music Summer School
and The Chamber Music Course at the
Queen’s College Oxford. He has
also been a visiting lecturer in music
at Oxford University and Gothenberg
University, Sweden.
He was a founding member of the quintet
The Five Winds, and now makes occasional
appearances with the light music quartet
ZigZag. Composing is a special interest,
too, and he has a growing number of
published works, mostly for wind instruments
or voices. He was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in
1999.
