Professional Staff - Gavin Carr

Gavin Carr was born in London and studied music and art history at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was a Choral Scholar in the celebrated Chapel Choir. He then emigrated for five years to Australia, where he began his conducting career working with leading ensembles including the Victoria State Opera Chorus and Pipeline Ensemble, and also appeared as baritone in a repertoire ranging from the fourteenth century to a number of world-premieres. Returning to Europe, it was as a singer that Gavin Carr made his debut at the Händel Festspiele in Halle as Manoah in Samson, and for the next ten years it was as baritone that he made his name, appearing at many festivals and with major orchestras and choruses worldwide in concert and recital.

In 2007 Gavin made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra, conducting an all-star cast including Emma Kirkby, Sarah Connolly and James Gilchrist in the St Matthew Passion in Bath Abbey. This event saw the inauguration of a new choir, Chorus Angelorum, which Gavin has formed to take advantage of the wealth of expert choral talent in the region. In June 2007 Chorus Angelorum made a warmly-received debut in Italy singing Messiaen’s Trois petites liturgies de la presence divine with Jan Latham-Koenig and the Orchestra of the Teatro Regio at the Turin Opera House. In August 2007, Gavin Carr returned to Italy with Chorus Angelorum for performances of Carmina Burana at the Festivals in Naples, Montepulciano, Bologna and Ljubljana. Current and future projects for Chorus Angelorum include the commercial recording of Paul Carr’s Requiem for an Angel, with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia for the Naim label, and appearances with Bath Philharmonia in Bath Abbey, and for the Frome Festival .

In the same year Gavin took over the Chorus Mastership of the Frome Festival Chorus (aka South West Festival Chorus) from Jeffrey Skidmore, and this weekend-workshop chorus has gone from strength to strength with performances and tours of the Brahms Deutsches Requiem and the Bach B Minor Mass with over 200 participants. In 2009 the chorus met in January to perform Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem in Bath Abbey, and in May 2009 they gave the Chinese premieres of The Dream of Gerontius in a highly successful tour to Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai.

In January of 2008 Gavin was appointed Conductor of the Bath Minerva Choir, one of the city’s largest performing ensembles with 140 voices. Concerts of Russian Orthodox a cappella music and Tavener with cellist Tim Hugh, a Verdi Opera Gala with soprano Gwyneth-Ann Jeffers, and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna in Bath Abbey have met with rave reviews from public and press alike. In July of 2009 Bath Minerva Choir joined with another of Gavin’s large choruses, The Athenaeum Singers of Warminster, to perform Vaughan Williams’ magnificent A Sea Symphony in Wells Cathedral with the Mid-Somerset Orchestra accompanying, as a benefit for the RNLI, with star soloists Amanda Roocroft and George von Bergen; the event raised upwards of £9,000 for the Lifeboats.

January 2009 saw Gavin take up his new post as Music Director of the celebrated Bristol Bach Choir – a crack chamber chorus with a reputation for the finest singing standards and stimulating programming. Their first year of concerts ranges from the Monteverdi Vespers in Bristol Cathedral via Messiah to American 20th Choral Masterpieces, and Spanish renaissance classics. The Choir has just completed a highly successful tour to Germany this summer, including programmes at the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, and at the Frauenkirche, Dresden.

Gavin took on the temporary appointment as Chorus Master of the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus in September 2009 and his appointment was made permanent in November 2009.

Despite the ever-growing demands of his conducting schedule, Gavin still finds time for singing work, and recent and upcoming appearances include Golijov’s Grammy Award-winning opera Ainadamar with Dawn Upshaw and the CBSO at Birmingham Symphony Hall and the Barbican, the Verdi Requiem in Gloucester Cathedral, and Britten’s War Requiem at the Teatro Municipal Opera in Santiago, Chile and in Moscow.