Strathaven Choral Society
Spring 2005 - Stabat Mater - Antonín Dvořák
Edward Caswell was born in Bournemouth and went to Christ Church, Oxford, and the Royal College of Music where he studied singing with Norman Bailey. He made his conducting debut at the age of eighteen with Haydn’s Nelson Mass in Oxford and won the Choral Conducting Prize at the Royal College of Music in 1991. In 1987 he founded the Bournemouth Bach Choir, now in its nineteenth year, conducting Bach’s St John Passion. He later studied privately with Edward Brooks and Robert Dean.
Edward works extensively as a choral conductor and singer. Since moving to Scotland in 2003 he has worked as a visiting lecturer conducting the Choral Society at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and has taken up the post of Director of Music at St Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Newlands, Glasgow where he recently conducted the Fauré Requiem and Bach Cantata Wachet auf! In September 2005 he became Musical Director of Cunninghame Choir with whom he will conduct Beethoven’s Mass in C in May 2006. As a guest chorus master he works with Huddersfield Choral Society, (Ein deutsches Requiem for Gianandrea Noseda), the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, (Carmen for Sakari Oramo) and Edinburgh Royal Choral Union, (The Bells for Martyn Brabbins). He is a Director of the Paisley Festival Company which now runs the Paisley Choral Festival. Later this year he will work with Douglas Coombes for Making Music Scotland at the new Perth Concert Hall and with Edinburgh Festival Chorus preparing for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.
Edward brings to his choral training expertise as a singer and a singing teacher and wide experience as a professional chorister having worked extensively with the BBC Singers, Monteverdi Choir, Royal Opera Extra Chorus, English National Opera Chorus and London Voices. He appears regularly as an oratorio soloist and as a member of the Dunedin Consort.