Hickox, Richard (Sidney)

Hickox, Richard (Sidney), esteemed English conductor; b. Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire, March 5, 1948. He studied organ, piano, and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1966–67) and was an organ scholar at Queens’ Coll., Cambridge (M.A., 1970). In 1971 he made his professional debut as a conductor at St. John’s Smith Square in London. He founded the City of London Sinfonia in 1971, and subsequently served as its music director. That same year he also organized the Richard Hickox Singers, which later became the City of London Sinfonia Singers. From 1972 to 1982 he was organist and master of music at St. Margaret’s, Westminster. He made his debut at the London Promenade Concerts in 1973. From 1976 he was music director of the London Sym. Chorus, and from 1978 of the Bradford Festival Choral Soc. In 1979 he made his debut as an opera conductor at the English National Opera in London. From 1980 to 1984 he was principal guest conductor of the Netherlands Radio Orch. in Hilversum. After serving as artistic director of the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle upon Tyne from 1982 to 1990, he was its principal guest conductor from 1990. In 1983-84 he was assoc. conductor of the San Diego Sym. Orch., and from 1985 of the London Sym. Orch. In 1985 he conducted for the first time at London’s Covent Garden, and in 1986 at the Los Angeles Opera. With Simon Standage, he founded the Collegium Musicum 90 of London in 1990. From 1998 he was principal conductor of the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and from 2000 of the BBC National Orch. of Wales in Cardiff. As a guest conductor, he was engaged by leading orchs. in Europe and North America. Hickox’s vast repertoire embraces works from the 14^th century to the present era. He reveals a rare capacity for surmounting the various interpretative challenges posed by both standard and seldom performed scores of the orch., choral, and operatic repertoires.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire