John Beswick Conductor
Welcome
I am a versatile musician with a wide range of experience working as a conductor, keyboard player and rehearsal pianist. Equally at home in the fields of opera, music theatre and orchestral conducting, I have worked with professional and talented amateur musicians in the UK and abroad.
About Me
Opera
Orchestra
Music Theatre
Opera
Orchestral Conducting
Orchestral Conducting
A wealth of experience of working in the field of opera has seen John conduct throughout the UK, the USA and in Europe, for companies including London City Opera (in association with CAMI), Crystal Clear Opera, Opera Box, British Youth Opera, Oxford Touring Opera and St Albans Chamber Opera. He also worked on the music staff for both The Icelandic Opera and Grange Park Opera.
As Musical Director for Pimlico Opera, he conducted several operatic touring productions, as well as Prison Projects in HMPs Coldingley, Bronzefield and Wandsworth (Sondheim's Assassins, Chicago by Kander/Ebb, and Boublil/Schonberg's Les Miserables respectively).
He has been Musical Director for Swansea City Opera since 2012, engaging in several community projects and conducting productions of The Magic Flute, Carmen, Cosi Fan Tutte, The Marriage of Figaro, Lakme, Faust, Don Pasquale, The Barber of Seville and La Boheme.
Orchestral Conducting
Orchestral Conducting
Orchestral Conducting
John trained as a postgraduate conducting scholar at the Royal College of Music with Neil Thomson, George Hurst and Odaline de la Martinez, before studies with Diego Masson at the Dartington International Summer School.
Currently Principal Conductor for Redhill Sinfonia (a post he has held since 2012), John has previously held posts with Slough Philharmonic Society and Southampton Youth Concert Sinfonia, and has conducted many other orchestras including Oxford University Orchestra, Oxford Chamber Orchestra, Colne Philharmonic Orchestra, Hertfordshire Philharmonia and Kew Sinfonia. Professional groups he has conducted include the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, The Bristol Ensemble and Ensemble Eos Cymru, the latter for whom he has recorded works by Welsh composer, Christopher Weeks.
Music Theatre
Music Theatre
Music Theatre
An experienced conductor of Music Theatre, John has worked as Associate Musical Director of Les Miserables in the West End, Musical Director on the UK tour of Miss Saigon, Associate Musical Director for Avenue Q (West End) and Associate Musical Director for Damon Albarn's pop-opera Monkey: Journey to the West at the o2, London (2008/09).
He has conducted numerous student and youth productions, often directing up to 200 performers at a time and, in 2010, he directed the first ever Ukrainian production of Oliver for the British International School in Kyiv.
He is a sought after keyboard player, having played on professional productions of shows including Phantom of the Opera, Top Hat, Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde, Les Miserables, Me and My Girl, Beyond the Barricade and The Full Monty.
Music Theatre
Music Theatre
Other Work
John is an experienced arranger, and his reduced orchestrations of operas have frequently been performed professionally; there have also been several performances of his arrangements of film music scores.
Since 2019, John has worked as an instrumental examiner for the ABRSM.