Stephen Layton established himself in the 1990s as one of the leading young British choral conductors.
As a boy he was a chorister in the Choir of Winchester Cathedral, which provided him his early musical training. He then won a post as a music scholar at Eton College. He learned singing, music theory, harmony, piano, and organ, in addition to his other course work.
He decided on music as a career and in competitive auditions won the position of organ scholar of King's College, Cambridge, perhaps the most famous of the British university chapel choirs. In this capacity he received a full scholarship to Cambridge, where he studied music, in return for participating in the choir's musical activities. As such, he appeared on several recordings on the Decca and EMI labels, performed on the BBC, and made tours of Europe, the United States, and Japan.
His first major conducting appearance was at Cambridge, where he led the choir and an orchestra in
Handel's
Messiah, with soprano
Emma Kirkby as one of the soloists, and conducted a university performance of
Gluck's
Orfée et Eurydice. Soon after graduation, he became the musical director of the
Wokingham Choral Society, with which he has led performances of
Elgar's
The Dream of Gerontius,
Poulenc's
Gloria, and
Tippett's
A Child of Our Time.
While still at Cambridge,
Layton formed a choral ensemble in 1986 for a concert at the King's College Chapel. The concert was successful, leading to the group's establishment as a permanent professional organization named
Polyphony. It was initially an early music group, but has expanded its repertory to other periods of music and moved its base of operation to London, where
Layton now primarily lives and works.
Polyphony debuted in the 1995 BBC Henry Woods Promenade Concerts in a newer work,
Arvo Pärt's
Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem (St. John Passion), with the
Hilliard Ensemble, and
Purcell's
Dido and Aeneas, with
Les Musiciens du Louvre, and has returned to the Proms in subsequent years.
Layton has conducted
Polyphony in the world premiere of
Oceanos by
James Dillon (1996) and in
Alfred Schnittke's
Symphony No. 2 with the
BBC Symphony Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall.
Layton has led
Polyphony in several recordings on the BMG Catalyst and Hyperion labels. These include
MacMillan's
Seven Last Words from the Cross, which won the Mercury Music Prize, choral music of
Pärt, music from
Percy Grainger's
Jungle Book, and
Rutter's
Requiem.
Layton is also musical director of the
Holst Singers and records with them on Hyperion. These have included the world premiere recording of
Christ's Nativity by
Benjamin Britten, one of the many forgotten
Britten works that have been edited and released by the Britten Estate. He led the
Holst Singers on some of the releases of
Graham Johnson's complete
Schubert song series. In addition,
Layton is principal guest conductor of the
Danish National Radio Choir and chief conductor of the
Netherlands Chamber Choir.
Layton has also directed the
BBC Singers, and the
London Schubert Chorale. He is also music director of London's famous
Temple Church. In 2009, he became principal conductor and artistic director of the
City of London Sinfonia.
His operatic debut was in 2000, conducting the
English National Opera in a staged production of
Bach's
St. John Passion. He has conducted choral and orchestral repertory with the
Bournemouth Sinfonietta, the
Australian Chamber Orchestra, and the
Istanbul Symphony Orchestra. He has often appeared on British and European television, and has toured in Europe, Japan, and Hong Kong. ~ Joseph Stevenson, Rovi
