| David Russell Hulme
Dr David Russell Hulme (born 1951) is a Welsh conductor and musicologist known for his research and publications on the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan, the Victorian era composer who, with Sir W. S. Gilbert, was responsible for the Gilbert and Sullivan Savoy Operas.
Life and career
A native of Machynlleth, Wales, Hulme studied music at the University College of Wales Aberystwyth and studied conducting with Sir Adrian Boult. Gaining an MA and PhD. for his research into British Music, he has published extensively, including recent articles for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the BBC Proms. Hulme completed his PhD thesis on Sullivan's theatre music in 1985 at the University of Wales. The thesis has been widely circulated among Sullivan scholars and Gilbert and Sullivan fans.
Hulme regularly conducts throughout Britain and Ireland. In 2001 he toured Australia and New Zealand, where he conducted the State Orchestra of Victoria, the Auckland Philharmonia and the Sydney Opera House Orchestra. He tours with the Carl Rosa Opera Company as conductor and chorus-master, including the Company's tours of North America in 2004 and 2006. Hulme also writes frequent articles on Gilbert and Sullivan and has lectured at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival. Hulme has reconstructed songs from Gilbert and Sullivan operas where some of the music had been lost, including the Duke's first act aria from Patience.
Described in Opera as our "leading authority on Sullivan's manuscripts", he has been closely involved in productions by leading opera companies including Welsh National Opera (Charles Mackerras's The Yeomen of the Guard), English National Opera (the Ken Russell/Jane Glover 'Princess Ida'). New Sadler's Wells Opera and D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, as well as others in North America and Australia. Hulme is also a leading authority on the music of Edward German. He was Senior Music Advisor and a conductor at the First Sir Edward German Music Festival at Whitchurch, Shropshire in 2006 and is custodian of The Edward German Archive.
Hulme edited Sullivan's music and advised for Mike Leigh's Oscar-winning film Topsy-Turvy and in 2000 published his critical edition of the full and piano-vocal scores of Ruddigore by Oxford University Press. He also edited OUP's 2006 edition of William Walton's Symphony No. 2 and a 2002 score of Paukenmesse to Haydn's Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) for OUP.
Hulme became University College of Wales' first Director of Music in 1992 and conducts the Philomusica, Choral Union and University Sinfonia there. He also took charge of the Aberystwyth Choral Society in 2002. |
