John Wilson (conductor)

John Wilson (born 1972) is a British conductor, arranger and musicologist who conducts orchestras and operas, as well as Big Band jazz. He is the creator of the John Wilson Orchestra and Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Wilson was born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. He attended Breckenbeds Junior High School in Low Fell, then Heathfield Senior High School in Gateshead (now closed). In the late 1980s he studied music at A-level at Newcastle College, where he conducted a variety of ensembles including a 96-piece orchestra and choir for a concert version of West Side Story. He wrote and directed his own pantomime during this period and he also conducted for many local amateur dramatic societies. Later he attended the Royal College of Music, first as a percussionist, and later studying composition and conducting. During this time won the institution's Tagore Gold Medal for outstanding academic excellence.

In 2004 Wilson was appointed the music director for the Hollywood feature film Beyond the Sea, a biopic of the life of Bobby Darin starring Kevin Spacey. In 2007 he conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra in a BBC Proms concert of British film music, followed in 2009 by conducting his own orchestra (the John Wilson Orchestra) in their Proms debut, a celebration of MGM Musicals, and made a further appearance in the 2010 Proms celebrating Rodgers and Hammerstein. He made a further Proms appearance in the 2011 season, entitled "Hooray for Hollywood", featuring his orchestra with the Maida Vale Singers and soloists. In 2012 he and his orchestra made another two performances at the BBC Proms. The first performance was a complete reconstruction of My Fair Lady which was broadcast on radio, the second was a tribute to the composers and arrangers of "The Broadway Sound" shown on BBC Two. The John Wilson Orchestra has now appeared in every Proms season since 2009, with a semi-staged version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" being the 2017 Prom.

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