Welcome to Our New Patron.
The Friends are delighted to announce Jonathan Willcocks has agreed to become Patron of the Friends of the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra.
Jonathan has a long-standing association with the orchestra in a range of roles including conductor, composer and parent of a viola player. The Friends are honoured that he has agreed to continue his association through support to the Friends.
Jonathan combines conducting, both of choral and orchestra repertoire, with extensive composition work and he has held major posts in general and specialist music education – most recently at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His current appointments include Musical Director of the Chichester Singers, Guildford Choral Society, Leith Hill Musical Festival and the professional chamber orchestra Southern Pro Musica.
His broad choral and orchestral conducting experience also results in many invitations as a guest-conductor and to lead choral workshops and adjudicate competitions and festivals in many parts of the world and throughout the UK.
As for his association with HCYO, this started in 1976 when he conducted his first concert and has continued to support the orchestra, most recently in the Spring of 2017 as guest conductor of Carmina Burana, performed at The Anvil Basingstoke. Two pieces of repertoire have been composed especially for the orchestra. The Concert Overture “Australia” was originally performed in 1988, followed in 1992 by The Theatre Ghost, a piece for narrator and orchestra.
Of the opportunity to become Patron of the Friends Jonathan expressed “I am very pleased to renew my relationship with HCYO in yet another capacity. It is such a great institution which over many years has offered terrific opportunities and inspiration to so many young musicians and the support and encouragement that the ‘Friends’ give is clearly vital to its success.”