Anthony Inglis (conductor)

Anthony Inglis (born 27 June 1952)[1] is a British conductor.

For the art director, see Tony Inglis.

Anthony Inglis, 2018

Early years

Inglis was born Anthony Inglis Howard-Williams and had to change his name when he and the slightly older conductor Howard Williams (no hyphen) was conducting Swan Lake for The Royal Ballet and Anthony Inglis conducted Swan Lake with the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet at the same time.[2]

He was born into an RAF family and he can number a great many past serving officers amongst his immediate ancestry.[3] His father was Squadron-Leader Jeremy Howard-Williams DFC, who was a night fighter pilot during World War II before joining Fighter Interception Unit.[4][2] His paternal grandfather, Air Commodore E. L. Howard-Williams was a major in the army, before joining the fledgling Royal Flying Corps, the precursor to the RAF. His uncle, Wing Commander Peter Howard-Williams DFC was in 19 Squadron flying out of Duxford during 1940 and flew in The Battle of Britain, and therefore was one of The Few.

His maternal grandfather was Air Vice-Marshal F. F. Inglis CB CBE and head of RAF Intelligence during WW2 and on Adolf Hitler's hit list for after the war should Germany have won. He was sent to America by Winston Churchill where he successfully persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to direct the American war against Germany rather than Japan.[5][6]

Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard, a Great-Uncle by marriage, was said by some to be the person who suggested to Winston Churchill the idea of sending the little ships over to Dunkirk to pick up the remnants of the British Army. Air-Commodore Peter Helmore (son of Air Commodore William Helmore) was an uncle by marriage. Amongst his non-RAF ancestry, there is his great-uncle Lt John Inglis who lost his life at the Battle of Loos, Vermilles and Hill 70 in 1915.

Anthony is directly descended from the great engineer Robert Napier of the Napier-Railton cars and more distantly related to another Robert Napier (shipbuilder), the man to whom Samuel Cunard turned, to install engines into his first ships such as the Britannia-class steamships. Further, he is directly descended from Col Sir John Inglis who commanded the garrison during the Siege of Lucknow in 1857 and General Sir Charles James Napier, famous for conquering the Sindh province in present-day Pakistan. The statue in the south-west corner of Trafalgar Square is of him. He continues the association with the name Napier as he has given his son Alexander, Napier as his middle name.

Education

He was first educated at Freston Lodge School in Sevenoaks, where at the age of 6 he first conducted.[2] On leaving Freston Lodge he boarded at Hordle House on the south coast of England in the village of Milford on Sea.[7] On leaving there he gained a scholarship to Marlborough College in Wiltshire.[7] Academically, he was not gifted and he left before failing his A Levels (having achieved four O Levels including music) and entered the Royal College of Music at an early age.[3]

Early career

On leaving the college, he did a number of music jobs which included being on the music staff for some of Ken Russell's films: Lisztomania and Mahler, plus singing on the cult film The Wicker Man; his is the high tenor heard in the pub scene. He played piano in the West End of London working his way up to being the music director for shows such as My Fair Lady with Anna Neagle and Tony Britton directed by the lyricist of the show Alan Jay Lerner; Oliver! with Ron Moody, the last time he reprised his role; The Two Ronnies with Barker and Corbett; and Irene with Jon Pertwee. Having conducted a season at the London Palladium he decided to pursue his original career: that of a classical conductor.[7]

Career
Inglis conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at the 2005 Melbourne Classical Spectacular
Inglis taking a bow

He has been described as "one of Britain's most popular conductors"[8] and leads a busy international conducting career, appearing with some of the greatest orchestras in concert halls from Sydney via Tokyo, to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and recording studios around the world. These include the four main London independent orchestras: London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra, all the British independent and most BBC orchestras, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in London, the Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins and is music consultant for The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre. For 15 years he was well known in the UK for his conducting of Classical Spectacular, and in Japan, his series of contemporary anime recordings with the Warsaw Philharmonic regularly featured in the top classical 10. In the world of opera, he has conducted at the Gothenburg opera house. In ballet, he has conducted all three Tchaikovsky ballets for Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Ballet, and he has been featured more times at London's Royal Albert Hall than anyone else in the building's history.[7]

Royal connections

He has conducted six royal concerts: a dance gala with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia in the presence of Diana, Princess of Wales, two concerts with the Royal Philharmonic in the presence of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the naming ceremony for the world's largest liner, the RMS Queen Mary 2; and two with the London Philharmonic in the presence of the Prince of Wales in aid of farmers and the naming ceremony for Cunard Line's liner, the MS Queen Victoria. The sixth was for the naming ceremony of the newest Cunard liner the MS Queen Elizabeth in the presence of the Queen.

Recordings

His studio, TV and concert recordings have been broadcast in the UK, Australia, Scandinavia, Europe and the Far East. He has made recent DVD recordings with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and two with Katherine Jenkins and the National Symphony plus CD recordings with: London Symphony (1993 Grammy nominated), London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), Philharmonia, Israel Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, Slovak Philharmonic, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Bournemouth Symphony, Cracow Radio Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Prague Sinfonia, Netherlands Radio Symphony. In 2005 he conducted the RPO at the largest regular live TV show in Europe called Wetten, dass..?.

Personal life

Inglis is married and lives by the River Thames in SW London with his wife Jan and three children. Jan's early career was in theatre, performing in the West End, before spending a number of seasons in Stratford and London as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. On starting a family, she retired from the theatre and became a teaching assistant at the local primary school, she is now completing her BA in Education Studies at King's College London.

gollark: As I said, the set of things the UK government wants from the EU is not really coherent.
gollark: Several actually, I watched them.
gollark: The UK doesn't really have a coherent negotiating position.
gollark: I assume we'll just be stuck "leaving" for ages because people have *such* unreasonable requirements.
gollark: Yes, it was indeed rather bad.

References
  1. "Anthony Inglis Howard-Williams". Inglis family tree. inglis.uk.com. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  2. hermes (10 March 2016). "Lights, saber, music". The Straits Times. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  3. "Stephen Hussey and Anthony Inglis: When two conductors collide". Hertfordshire Life. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  4. "Jeremy Howard-Williams – Obituary". The Daily Telegraph. September 1995. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  5. "Air Vice Marshal F F Inglis". A History of RAF Organisation. rafweb.org. 29 September 2007. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  6. Goddard, Victor (n.d.). "Frank Inglis obituary". Private letter. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  7. "Famous Residents from Milford on Sea". www.milfordonsea.org. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  8. "An orchestra will be performing seminal scores from Hans Zimmer and John Williams live in Singapore". bandwagon.asia. 18 January 2017. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
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