Ralph Allwood

Ralph Allwood, MBE
Born 30th April 1950
Occupation(s) Choral conductor

Ralph Allwood, MBE (born 30th April 1950) was the Precentor and Director of Music at Eton College in the UK until September 2011. He is a British conductor and has set up many musical events, including the Eton Choral Courses of which there are now seven a year.[1] He previously headed the music departments at Pangbourne and Uppingham.[2] He also conducts the Rodolfus Choir, a critically acclaimed group of singers aged 16–25, drawn principally from the Eton Choral Courses.[3]

Ralph is also the conductor of the highly praised Inner Voices choir. Inner Voices is a youth chamber choir based in London. Set up in 2011 the choir brings together great singers from a group of London state schools to sing music from across the genre boundaries under the direction of Allwood.

Allwood implemented many changes to the Eton College Music Department since his arrival in 1985, including changes to the music lesson and scheduling system and doubling the size of the music schools. One very important job was to select the Music Scholars and Exhibitioners for entry into the school in F Block.

Allwood directed and ran the College Chapel Choir at Eton, and had been doing so since 1985. In 2009, he announced that he would be retiring from his post as Precentor and Director of Music in 2011.

His brother, Peter Allwood, was the former Director of Music at Christ's Hospital before he became a headmaster.

He was replaced as Precentor at Eton by Mr. Tim Johnson, who was previously the director of music at The Royal College of St Peter in Westminster, in September 2011.

Honours

He was apppointed MBE in the Queen's 2012 New Year Honours List.[4]

Allwood was awarded an honorary doctoral degree (DMus) from the University of Aberdeen in 2013.[5]

In 2017, he was awarded the Thomas Cranmer Award for Worship by the Archbishop of Canterbury "for services to choral music in the Church of England and especially for fostering musical education amongst disadvantaged children".[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Eton Choral Courses". Ralphallwood.com. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  2. ↑ "Ralph Allwood". Signumrecords.com. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  3. ↑ "Ralph Allwood". Rodolfuschoir.co.uk. 2012-09-29. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  4. ↑ "Ralph Allwood awarded an MBE | Latest News". Rodolfuschoir.co.uk. 2011-12-31. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  5. ↑ University of Aberdeen: Honorary Music Graduates, online resource accessed 1 July 2017
  6. ↑ "The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Awards: Citations in Alphabetical Order" (pdf). Archbishop of Canterbury. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
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