| Our Director of Music: Antony Pitts |
Antony joined the BBC in 1992, and became a Senior Producer for BBC Radio 3. He was awarded the Radio Academy BT Award for
Facing the Radio (1995) - one of the first live interactive experiments on the internet. He has developed an extremely personal style of
"heterophonic radio" which emerged for the first time in a BBC Radio 3 Between the Ears piece, Virtual Strangers (1996). For the turn of
the Millennium he devised The Unfinished Symphony - an 18-hour history of Western music. He has been nominated seven times for the
Prix Italia for Chromatic Fantasy (1994); Gould, Tobacco, Bach (1998); Tabula rasa (1998); Credo: The Future of Music (2000); A Parisian
in Paradise (2002); The Rise and Fall of the English Cadence (2002); and in 2004 he was awarded the Prix Italia Radio Music prize for A
Pebble in the Pond. Antony has also presented series on the music of Olivier Messiaen, Guillaume de Machaut, Hildegard of Bingen and
Arvo Pärt, and has guest-presented BBC Radio 4's Something Understood. In 2004 he devised and produced A Passion 4 Radio in which all
four Gospel accounts of the Passion were presented in parallel. He gained some notoriety in 2005 for resigning his BBC Senior Producer
post partly in order to be able to speak freely to the media about the ill-advised broadcast of Jerry Springer the Opera; he has since founded
Golden Radio, and its first independent production was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March 2006 entitled Not in my name.
Antony has been composing since he can remember and his music has been performed across Europe and in the USA, including Wigmore
Hall and Westminster Cathedral in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal in Berlin. He has
been commissioned by the Berlin Radio Choir, Cambridge Voices, the Clerks' Group, European Chamber Opera, King's College London,
New Chamber Opera, Peter Johnson Entertainments, Schola Cantorum of Oxford, the Swingle Singers, and the Choir of Westminster
Cathedral, as well as the Edington Festival of Music within the Liturgy, the Kingston-upon-Thames Festival of the Voice, the London
Festival of Contemporary Church Music, and the Oxford Festival of Contemporary Music. Faber Music selected two of his scores to launch
their New Choral Works series, and also publish The Naxos Book of Carols and his 40-voice motet XL (a companion piece for Tallis's
Spem in alium) - released on Harmonia Mundi. Antony teaches composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he is Senior
Lecturer in Creative Technology.
Father Ed writes: As well as being a highly gifted musician, Antony is also a deeply committed Christian. We are delighted to announce his
appointment and pray for the future of our music under his guidance. Antony's gentle spirit and down to earth nature will ensure he is a
valued and loved member of our church community for years to come- at least that is very much my hope and my prayer.
Facing the Radio (1995) - one of the first live interactive experiments on the internet. He has developed an extremely personal style of
"heterophonic radio" which emerged for the first time in a BBC Radio 3 Between the Ears piece, Virtual Strangers (1996). For the turn of
the Millennium he devised The Unfinished Symphony - an 18-hour history of Western music. He has been nominated seven times for the
Prix Italia for Chromatic Fantasy (1994); Gould, Tobacco, Bach (1998); Tabula rasa (1998); Credo: The Future of Music (2000); A Parisian
in Paradise (2002); The Rise and Fall of the English Cadence (2002); and in 2004 he was awarded the Prix Italia Radio Music prize for A
Pebble in the Pond. Antony has also presented series on the music of Olivier Messiaen, Guillaume de Machaut, Hildegard of Bingen and
Arvo Pärt, and has guest-presented BBC Radio 4's Something Understood. In 2004 he devised and produced A Passion 4 Radio in which all
four Gospel accounts of the Passion were presented in parallel. He gained some notoriety in 2005 for resigning his BBC Senior Producer
post partly in order to be able to speak freely to the media about the ill-advised broadcast of Jerry Springer the Opera; he has since founded
Golden Radio, and its first independent production was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March 2006 entitled Not in my name.
Antony has been composing since he can remember and his music has been performed across Europe and in the USA, including Wigmore
Hall and Westminster Cathedral in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal in Berlin. He has
been commissioned by the Berlin Radio Choir, Cambridge Voices, the Clerks' Group, European Chamber Opera, King's College London,
New Chamber Opera, Peter Johnson Entertainments, Schola Cantorum of Oxford, the Swingle Singers, and the Choir of Westminster
Cathedral, as well as the Edington Festival of Music within the Liturgy, the Kingston-upon-Thames Festival of the Voice, the London
Festival of Contemporary Church Music, and the Oxford Festival of Contemporary Music. Faber Music selected two of his scores to launch
their New Choral Works series, and also publish The Naxos Book of Carols and his 40-voice motet XL (a companion piece for Tallis's
Spem in alium) - released on Harmonia Mundi. Antony teaches composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he is Senior
Lecturer in Creative Technology.
Father Ed writes: As well as being a highly gifted musician, Antony is also a deeply committed Christian. We are delighted to announce his
appointment and pray for the future of our music under his guidance. Antony's gentle spirit and down to earth nature will ensure he is a
valued and loved member of our church community for years to come- at least that is very much my hope and my prayer.
Antony Pitts was born in 1969 and sang as a boy in the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace.
He was an Academic Scholar and later Honorary Senior Scholar at New College, Oxford and
graduated in 1990 with First-Class Honours in Music. In the same year he founded the ensemble
TONUS PEREGRINUS, and in 2004 won a Cannes Classical Award for their debut Naxos CD
of Arvo Pärt's Passio (also a UK No.1 and The Gramophone "Editor's Choice"). Naxos have
since released a series of key milestones of Western music performed by TONUS
PEREGRINUS under his direction:
He was an Academic Scholar and later Honorary Senior Scholar at New College, Oxford and
graduated in 1990 with First-Class Honours in Music. In the same year he founded the ensemble
TONUS PEREGRINUS, and in 2004 won a Cannes Classical Award for their debut Naxos CD
of Arvo Pärt's Passio (also a UK No.1 and The Gramophone "Editor's Choice"). Naxos have
since released a series of key milestones of Western music performed by TONUS
PEREGRINUS under his direction: