Humphrey Burton

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Humphrey Burton, CBE, is a British classical music presenter, broadcaster, director, producer, and biographer of musicians.

Born 25 March 1931 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, he read music and history at Cambridge University and joined the BBC in 1955. He directed many programmes and documentaries and was made BBC Television's first Head of Music and Arts 1965-67. He then worked for eight years in commercial television co-founding London Weekend Television, where edited and presented ITV's award-winning arts series Aquarius, the inspiration for the South Bank Show. He returned to the BBC until 1981.

In the 1970s, at the request of Leonard Bernstein, he began an association with the famous composer-conductor, making documentaries and filmed concerts in which Bernstein both conducted and/or offered commentary. These were produced for Unitel. One of them, Beethoven's Birthday: A Celebration in Vienna, was first telecast on CBS and won an Emmy in 1972.

After leaving the BBC he worked in the USA and Europe as director or programme presenter in classical music, opera, ballet, documentaries and music competitions. He has written biographies of Leonard Bernstein and Yehudi Menuhin.

He has been awarded four Emmies and two British Academy Awards, the Royal Television Society's silver medal and a Sony Gold Award. He was awarded the CBE in the Millennium Honours, 2000.