david bray
conductor, composer, trumpet player and music educator
Dr David Bray is a musician based in Northamptonshire and works mainly in the East Midlands, West Midlands and London areas.
David has conducted a wide range of orchestras, brass bands, wind bands, choirs and other ensembles. He has performed many times in all the UK's major concert venues. He specialises in performance of contemporary and early music. He is a composer, author and trumpet player, including natural trumpet and cornett (occasional). He has a PhD from the University of Birmingham, where he worked as a Research Fellow.
His experience includes professional work as a trumpet player, where he gained an outstanding reputation in performance of Baroque music in particular, along with standard orchestral repertoire. He has played for many of the UKs leading orchestras and ensembles, performing concertos in venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and solo trumpet recitals in King's College, Robinson's College and Christ's College. He conducted the Northern New Music Players, Cambridge Wind Soloists, numerous brass bands and several other award-winning groups.
David has been the permanent musical director for many choirs and other musical groups, including Orlando Singers, Vox Humana, Fiorosa, Midsummer Singers, Bedworth Choral Society, Wellingborough Orpheus Choir, Locrian Singers, Quorum, Cambridge Youth Choir, Mercian Chamber Choir and Central Singers. He has worked with many leading choirs as a guest conductor.
David was the County Music Adviser for Northamptonshire for over ten years and has written a wide range of books and other publications on music education, including Teaching Music In The Secondary School (Heinemann) and Creating A Musical School (OUP). He worked for several years in school leadership, inspection and development.He led the development of the first state-funded music college to be set up in England.
David founded the Northamptonshire County Youth Choir, conducting them in a series of concerts, festivals and recordings over a ten-year period. They were twice finalists in the televised Sainsbury's Choir of the Year competition, performed on Classic FM, BBC Radio 3 and received outstanding performance awards at the National Festival of Music for Youth. They were chosen to perform at Sir Malcolm Arnold's 75th birthday concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London and at the Schools' Prom in the Albert Hall, as well as winning prizes at Montreux and Riva del Garda international festivals. An adjudicator described them 'as extremely fine in every way'. He currently direct luminatus.
