Anthony Burton
Anthony Burton grew up in Hertfordshire. He played the oboe in the County Youth Orchestra and many other ensembles, and gained an ARCM performer’s diploma on the instrument at the age of 18 — before taking up an open scholarship to study music at Trinity College, Cambridge. His first jobs after university were in general arts administration, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and for the North West Arts Association in Manchester. He then spent 15 years on the staff of BBC Radio 3 in London: first as a producer of concerts and studio programmes, ranging from Baroque music on period instruments to contemporary music; and later as chief assistant to the Controller of Music, a post which entailed responsibility for the work of the BBC Singers. In 1989 he went freelance, chiefly as a presenter on Radio 3 (In Tune, Record Review, Mozart in Prague and other documentaries, many live concerts) and the BBC World Service (Music Review, The Story of Western Music) and as a writer, amassing a hoard of programme notes on literally thousands of works of all periods. In the summer of 2001 he was guest artistic director of the Spitalfields Festival. This led six years later, to the invitation to write a piece for “Variations for Judith”, his first attempt at original composition since his student days.
Anthony Burton grew up in Hertfordshire. He played the oboe in the County Youth Orchestra and many other ensembles, and gained an ARCM performer’s diploma on the instrument at the age of 18 — before taking up an open scholarship to study music at Trinity College, Cambridge. His first jobs after university were in general arts administration, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and for the North West Arts Association in Manchester. He then spent 15 years on the staff of BBC Radio 3 in London: first as a producer of concerts and studio programmes, ranging from Baroque music on period instruments to contemporary music; and later as chief assistant to the Controller of Music, a post which entailed responsibility for the work of the BBC Singers. In 1989 he went freelance, chiefly as a presenter on Radio 3 (In Tune, Record Review, Mozart in Prague and other documentaries, many live concerts) and the BBC World Service (Music Review, The Story of Western Music) and as a writer, amassing a hoard of programme notes on literally thousands of works of all periods. In the summer of 2001 he was guest artistic director of the Spitalfields Festival. This led six years later, to the invitation to write a piece for “Variations for Judith”, his first attempt at original composition since his student days.