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Conductor, composer, arranger, producer and pianist, Eric Wetherell's career as a professional musician has spanned half a century. His activities have included the following:
Eric Wetherell was recently one of 8 short-listed candidates nationally for the prestigious Sternberg Award, given by The Times newspaper.
- Professional horn player for some years
- A repetiteur at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
- Assistant Musical Director and Conductor with Welsh National Opera
- Musical Director for HTV
- Chief Conductor for the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra
- Senior Music Producer for the BBC South and West
He has always loved jazz and light music and conducted the Welsh Jazz Orchestra for several years both in concerts and Radio 3 broadcasts. He continues to play jazz keyboard with small groups.
Now concentrating mainly on composing, Eric has written orchestral suites, jazz, wind band and brass band works, choral pieces, children's songs and music for TV and films. He has completed reduced scores of Carmen, A Masked Ball and Macbeth for Midland Opera, based in Birmingham, their annual major productions for the last 3 years. He has also orchestrated most of the Gilbert and Sullivan light operas to make them suitable for performance using chamber orchestras. He is at present working on a group of part songs featuring Shakespearean sonnets for the students of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
His opera '
A Foreign Field' is due for its first performance in autumn 2010.