Jeffrey Skidmore

Jeffrey Skidmore (believed to be born 1951) is the conductor and artistic director of Ex Cathedra, a choir and early music ensemble based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. An active participant in musical education and a pioneer in researching and performing neglected choral works of the 16th to 18th centuries, he has worked with leading musicologists to prepare new performing editions of French and Italian music. In particular, his recordings of French and Latin American Baroque music with Ex Cathedra have won wide acclaim.

Education and current activities

Jeffrey Skidmore was born in Birmingham, England in 1951, it is believed. [The year of his birth stated in this article is based on the fact that he was 18 years old when he founded Ex Cathedra in 1969: see citation|title=The artists|url=http://www.lufthansafestival.org.uk/2002/html/artists.html#Jeffrey_Skidmore|publisher=Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music|accessdate=2008-02-20; citation|title=Ex Cathedra Choir|url=http://www.ex-cathedra.org/about.php|publisher=Ex Cathedra|accessdate=2008-02-20.] Skidmore began conducting while still at school, and was only 18 years old when he founded the Ex Cathedra choir in Birmingham in 1969. After going to Bournville Boys Technical School, later Bournville Grammar-Technical School for Boys, he went on to read music with David Wulstan at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, where he was a choral scholar under Bernard Rose.citation|title=The artists: Jeffrey Skidmore|url=http://www.lufthansafestival.org.uk/2002/html/artists.html#Jeffrey_Skidmore|publisher=Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music|accessdate=2008-02-20.] He then taught as a music school teacher in Birmingham.

Directing the Ex Cathedra choir and its associated Ex Cathedra Consort and Baroque Orchestra, Skidmore has appeared in concert series and festivals across the UK and abroad, and has made a number of highly-acclaimed recordings. In addition, he regularly conducts other ensembles such as the BBC Singers, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Hanover Band. He has commissioned more than ten new works and conducted many world premières by well-established and new composers, including Fyfe Hutchins, Gabriel Jackson, John Joubert, Daryl Runswick, Peter Sculthorpe, Philip Sheppard, Peter Wiegold and Roderick Williams.

In the field of opera Skidmore worked with Marc Minkowski and David McVicker on the 2004 production of Eccles' "Semele" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris; and conducted Cavalli's "La Calisto", Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas", and Rameau's "Pigmalion" at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Birmingham City University (formerly University of Central England). With Ex Cathedra he gave the first performances in modern times of the French Baroque operas "Zaïde, reine de Grenade" ("Zaïde, Queen of Grenada") by Royer and "Isis" by Lully.citation|title=Jeffrey Skidmore|url=http://www.ex-cathedra.org/jeffreyskidmore.php|publisher=Ex Cathedra|accessdate=2008-02-20.] Programme for Ex Cathedra's performance of John Joubert's "Wings of Faith" at The Oratory, Birmingham, on 22 March 2007.]

Contributions to musicology and musical education

Skidmore is a pioneer in the field of research and performance of neglected choral works of the 16th to 18th centuries, and, in particular, has won wide acclaim for his recordings of French and Latin American Baroque music with Ex Cathedra for Hyperion Records. An Honorary Fellow at the Birmingham Conservatoire and a research fellow at the University of Birmingham, he has worked with many leading musicologists to prepare new performing editions of French and Italian music by Giovanni Animuccia, Juan de Araujo, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Michel Richard Delalande, Claudio Monteverdi and Jean-Philippe Rameau.

Active in music education, Skidmore is Artistic Director of Early Music and the Capelle Baroque Orchestra of the Birmingham Conservatoire, and director of Ex Cathedra's wide-reaching education programme. He frequently gives choral training workshops and teaches at summer schools in the UK and overseas. He has regularly directed the choral programme at Dartington International Summer School and was Classical Music Programmer for the 2005 Kilkenny Arts Festival. [citation|title=Latin American Vespers – Moon, Sun and All Things: Ex Cathedra; QuintEssential Sackbutt & Cornett Ensemble|url=http://www.kilkennyarts.ie/2005/classical_08.shtml|publisher=Kilkenny Arts Festival|year=2005|accessdate=2008-06-19]

ee also

*Ex Cathedra

Notes

References

*citation|title=The artists: Jeffrey Skidmore|url=http://www.lufthansafestival.org.uk/2002/html/artists.html#Jeffrey_Skidmore|publisher=Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music|accessdate=2008-02-20.
*citation|title=Jeffrey Skidmore|url=http://www.ex-cathedra.org/jeffreyskidmore.php|publisher=Ex Cathedra|accessdate=2008-02-20.
*Programme for Ex Cathedra's performance of John Joubert's "Wings of Faith" at The Oratory, Birmingham, on 22 March 2007.

Further reading

*citation|last=Dunnett|first=Roderic|title=Ex Cathedra, Lichfield Cathedral concert review|url=http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article281434.ece|newspaper=The Independent|date=2000-04-19.
*citation|last=Church|first=Michael|title=The Jesuits invent fusion|url=http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/article209211.ece|newspaper=The Independent|date=2001-09-09.
*citation|last=Northcott|first=Bayan|title=Ex Cathedra, St John's, Smith Square, London: Rome's genius resurrected|url=http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article219579.ece|newspaper=The Independent|date=2002-02-01.
*citation|last=Northcott|first=Bayan|title=Ex Cathedra/Skidmore, St John's, Smith Square, London: When world music met the Baroque preview of the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2002|url=http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article189759.ece|newspaper=The Independent|date=2002-05-24.
*citation|last=Norris|first=Geoffrey|title=Dies Irae to didgeridoo review of the Lichfield Festival 2004|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/07/15/bmgn15.xml|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=2004-07-15.
*citation|last=Stewart|first=Pat|title=Eastern Early Music Forum: Lalande day with Jeffrey Skidmore|url=http://www.eemf.org.uk/Lalande_Skidmore_published.htm|magazine=EEMF Newsletter 59|date=July 2005|accessdate=2007-04-08.
*citation|title=From the priest-hole era|url=http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=13703|newspaper=Church Times|date=2005-11-18|issue=7445
*citation|last=Dunnett|first=Roderic|title=Ex Cathedra, Oratory, Birmingham review of "A Latin American Christmas" concert|url=http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article333126.ece|newspaper=The Independent|date=2005-12-14.
*citation|last=Morley|first=Christopher|title=The full Monte by candlelight: Ex Cathedra at Birmingham Oratory|url=http://icstafford.icnetwork.co.uk/tm_headline=the-full-monte-by-candlelight&method=full&objectid=19340211&siteid=50002-name_page.html|newspaper=Birmingham Post (reproduced at icStafford.co.uk)|date=2007-06-22

External links

* [http://www.ex-cathedra.org/jeffreyskidmore.php Jeffrey Skidmore at the website of Ex Cathedra]
* [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Skidmore-Jeffrey.htm Jeffrey Skidmore at the Bach Cantatas website]
* [http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=skidmore Jeffrey Skidmore at the Hyperion Records website]
* [http://www.lacock.org/html/body_jeffrey_skidmore.htm Jeffrey Skidmore at the website of the Lacock Summer School, which conducts courses for singers and players of Renaissance and Baroque instruments]
* [http://www.lufthansafestival.org.uk/2002/html/artists.html Jeffrey Skidmore at the website of the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music]
* [http://www.maylerartistmanagement.at/Ex%20Cathedra.htm Jeffrey Skidmore at the website of Mayler Artist Management]

Persondata
NAME = Skidmore, Jeffrey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = British conductor and musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH = 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH = Birmingham, West Midlands, England
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =