Darius Battiwalla
Darius has
given organ recitals at cathedrals and concert halls including Leeds Town
Hall, Westminster Abbey, York Minster and Bath Abbey. Recent highlights
include a complete performance of Messiaen's L'Ascension at
the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, the Reubke sonatas for piano and organ at
St Martin-in-the-Fields, and a recital from the St Magnus Festival
broadcast on radio 3. He gave the recital at Royal College of Organists'
presentation ceremony in 2000, and has given recitals and lectures for the
Incorporated Association of Organists' annual congress. He appears
regularly with the Manchester orchestras, recently performing the solo part
in Janacek's Glagolitic Mass with the
Halle and Mark Elder. He is a
regular organist for the BBC Philharmonic orchestra and has played on many
of their recordings for Chandos Records. Future projects include a new piece for organ and
electronics by James Wood. 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, performed the Gorecki concerto and
broadcast the Schnittke Concerto Grosso no 4 live with
the BBC Philharmonic at the Schnittke festival at the Barbican.
As a
conductor and choral trainer, Darius has been music director of the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus for
the last nine years. In addition to preparing them for visiting orchestras
and conductors 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. Last season he returned to work
with the Melbourne Chorale, conducting Verdi's Requiem in
the Hamer Hall. 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, and the premeire 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 had works performed by the CBSO and chorus, RLPO and chorus, Fodens
Courtois brass band, broadcast on BBC Songs of Praise, and
recorded by Doyen and Naxos.
He also provided some of the arrangements and played the organ for
Huddersfield Choral Society's recent Hymns Album and
Carols Album.
He
occasionally improvises piano or organ accompaniments for silent film
shows, and teaches organ, improvisation and continuo at the Royal Northern College of Music.