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Saturday 14 December 2013

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields celebrates Neville Marriner's 90th birthday

Sir Neville Marriner
In April 2014 Sir Neville Marriner is 90. Founder and Life President of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF), a celebration of the conductor's birthday is a feature of ASMF's season next year. Still highly active as a conductor, Marriner will be conducting ASMF in a number of celebratory concerts starting with a birthday concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 1 April 2014.

On 1 April 2014 Marriner and the orchestra will be joined by the group's current artistic director, violinist Joshua Bell, for a performance of RVW's The Lark Ascending in  programme which includes Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 with Murray Perahia (who is ASMF's principal guest conductor). Then on 20 May 2014 Marriner conducts the orchestra in a concert at St Martin in the Fields which includes Mozart's overture to The Marriage of Figaro and Symphony No. 24 plus RVW's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. The orchestra's celebratory season also includes concerts in Hamburg, Hanover and Munich.

Archive photo of Sir Neville Marriner, with ASMF & Los Romeros (c) Mike Evans
Sir Neville Marriner with ASMF
and Los Romeros
(c) Mike Evans


Neville Marriner studied as a violinist at the Royal College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire. Joining the London Symphony Orchestra in 1956 as principal 2nd violin, he also helped found the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 1958. Originally the ensemble was a 12 piece group.

Marriner initially directed from the leader's chair, but from the late 1960's he started conducting the group and went on to have a distinguished career conducting both the ASMF and a number of other orchestra including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.  Marriner and ASMF recently released a disc of concertos by Howard Blake on the Pentatone Classics label (see my review).

Further information from the Academy of St Martin in the Fields website.



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