Musical Director: Aidan Oliver
Aidan Oliver has been Musical Director of Dulwich Choral Society since 2006.
Aidan Oliver is Director of Music at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey (the Parliamentary Church), and the director of Philharmonia Voices, the professional chorus that collaborates with the Philharmonia Orchestra on many of its most ambitious projects. Founded at the invitation of the Philharmonia in 2004, this is now recognised as one of the country’s elite professional choruses.
Aidan is also the Associate Conductor of the St Endellion Summer Festival in Cornwall. He also works regularly as a freelance member of the music staff at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and as a guest chorus master and conductor with many of London’s top choruses, including the BBC Symphony Chorus, the Bach Choir, and New London Chamber Choir.
As a guest conductor Aidan’s engagements in 2011-12 thus far have included concerts and workshops with Kent Youth Choir, Exaudi, Essex Chamber Orchestra, Kingston Choral Society, the Oriel Chamber Choir in Cheltenham, Leicester University Chorus, and Manchester Chamber Choir. Forthcoming highlights of 2012 include a performance of Bach’s B minor Mass in the Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich with Dulwich Choral Society, Mozart Mass in C minor and Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs in Truro Cathedral in the St Endellion Festival, and the involvement of Philharmonia Voices in projects ranging from Shostakovich’s Symphony No.13 (Babi Yar) to ‘My Fair Lady’ with the Philharmonia.
Aidan Oliver began his musical career as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral, later studying at Eton College and at King’s College Cambridge. After graduating with a double First in Classics, he pursued further studies at Harvard University (as a Kennedy Scholar), the National Opera Studio and King’s College London. He was the recipient of one of the inaugural BBC Singers Conducting Fellowships, and of a Churchill Fellowship to study sacred choral music in Russia.
Aidan lives in East Dulwich with his wife and two children.
