Darius Battiwalla
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Darius has given organ recitals at cathedrals and concert halls including
Leeds Town Hall, Westminster Abbey, York Minster and Bath Abbey. He has
performed Messiaen's L'Ascension at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, the Reubke
sonatas for piano and organ at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and his recital from
the St Magnus Festival, Orkney was broadcast on radio 3. He has given the
recital at Royal College of Organists' presentation ceremony, and has given
recitals and lectures for the Incorporated Association of Organists' annual
congress. He has appeared as soloist with the Halle and London Philharmonic
Orchestras, and is a regular organist for the BBC Philharmonic orchestra. Most recently he is organist on the
recording of Stainer's Crucifixion with Huddersfield Choral
Society just released on Signum Records.
As a pianist, he gives regular chamber concerts with members of the
Manchester orchestras, and Goldberg ensemble, including BBC broadcasts. On the harpsichord, he has played
continuo with many UK orchestras, and performed and broadcast harpsichord
concertos.
As a conductor and choral trainer, Darius has been music director of the
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus since
1997. In addition to preparing them for visiting orchestras and conductors -
including Mark Elder, Gianandrea Noseda,
Nicholas Kraemer, and Richard Hickox - he has conducted the choir in
performances with the Halle, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Northern Sinfonia, and directed from the harpsichord with the
Manchester Camerata. The choir's latest recording is of the newly reconstructed
score of Elgar's Crown of India with the BBCPO and Sir Andrew Davis for Chandos Records. In 2006
he returned to work with the Melbourne Chorale, conducting Verdi's Requiem in the Hamer
Hall. Before taking up his post at
Sheffield he was chorusmaster of Leeds Philharmonic
Chorus. He is deputy chorus master
to Huddersfield
Choral Society and works as a
visiting chorus master with other choirs including the City of
Birmingham Symphony Chorus and the Netherlands Radio Choir, with whom he mostly
specializes in contemporary music, having prepared them for works by Berio, Boulez, Ligeti, and the
premiere of Stockhausen's Engel-Prozessionen, and last season
worked for the first time with contemporary specialists the New London Chamber
Choir.
As an arranger,
Darius has works performed regularly by the CBSO and chorus, RLPO and chorus, Fodens Courtois brass band, Huddersfield Choral Society, the Northern Sinfonia, broadcast on BBC Songs of Praise, and recorded by Doyen, Naxos and Signum Records. He also improvises piano or organ
accompaniments for silent film shows, most recently Nosferatu and Phantom of the
Opera.
Darius teaches piano and
organ, and is on the staff of the Royal
Northern College of Music, where he teaches organ, improvisation and
continuo.