{{Short description|British conductor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} ''' Paul McCreesh''' (born 24 May 1960)<ref name=Birth>{{cite web|title=Birthdays today|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/archive/2013-5-24.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130524113741/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/archive/2013-5-24.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 24 May 2013 |publisher=The Telegraph|accessdate=24 May 2014|date=24 May 2013|quote=Mr Paul McCreesh, founder, director and conductor, Gabrieli Consort and Players, 53 }}</ref> is an English conductor. Paul McCreesh is the founder and artistic director of the Gabrieli Consort & Players. With them he has performed in major concert halls and festivals across the world. He has been the artistic director of the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Wrocław, Poland and of the Brinkburn Festival in England.
In 2005 Loughborough University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.
==Musical education== McCreesh began his career as a cellist and took his MusB from the University of Manchester in 1981.
==Repertoire and performance== Paul McCreesh made his name in the music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, particularly that of Venice. The Gabrieli Consort was founded in 1982 and as of 2020 is still active. McCreesh and the Gabrielis made a successful Proms début in 1992: the second part of the concert was "Music for the Coronation of a Doge, 27 April 1595".<ref name="Proms">{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ecrc8g |title=30 July 1992. Royal Albert Hall |website=Proms performance archive |access-date=2019-07-12}}</ref>
In recent years he has also worked with modern instrument orchestras including the DSO Berlin, RSO Berlin, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Sinfónica de Euskadi, Stockholm Philharmonic and Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma.
===Opera=== {{BLP unsourced section|date=April 2017}} McCreesh has conducted Handel's ''Jephtha'' for Welsh National Opera and Gluck's ''Orfeo ed Euridice'', as well as Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'' for Royal Danish Opera and, for Komische Oper Berlin, a new David Alden staging of Handel's ''Alcina''. He has also conducted Handel's ''Rodelinda'' at the Beaune Festival and at the Brinkburn Festival, which he founded.
==Recordings== From 1993 Paul McCreesh built a large discography for Deutsche Grammophon. In 2011 he established Winged Lion, an independent label, which is a subsidiary of Signum Records.
===Reconstructions=== McCreesh is noted for his "liturgical reconstructions" in which music is presented in the context of a specific liturgy with appropriate background sounds such as bell-ringing.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Picard |first=Anna |date=23 September 2012 |title=Album: Gabrieli Consort & Players, A New Venetian Coronation 1595 (Winged Lion) |work=Independent.co.uk |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/album-gabrieli-consort-players-a-new-venetian-coronation-1595-winged-lion-8165786.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/album-gabrieli-consort-players-a-new-venetian-coronation-1595-winged-lion-8165786.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref> The Gramophone Award winning album "Venetian Coronation" (released on Virgin Classics in 1990) represented a breakthrough for the Gabrieli Consort and Players. A new version of this musical reconstruction of the coronation of Marino Grimani was released in 2012 on Winged Lion.<ref name="BBC">{{Cite web |title=Venetian Coronation |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/49zb/ |last=Rogers, Graham |date=2012 |publisher=BBC |access-date=15 June 2012}}</ref><ref name="Indie">{{Cite news |last=Gill |first=Andy |date=June 2012 |title=Album: Paul McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort & Players A New Venetian Coronation 1595 (Signum) |publisher=Independent.co.uk |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/album-paul-mccreesh-gabrieli-consort--playersa-new-venetian-coronation-1595-signum-7808248.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/album-paul-mccreesh-gabrieli-consort--playersa-new-venetian-coronation-1595-signum-7808248.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=7 June 2012}}</ref>
"Music for the Duke of Lerma" is a musical reconstruction featuring Spanish sacred music associated with Francisco Gómez de Sandoval, 1st Duke of Lerma. It was released on DG's Archiv label.<ref name="Guardian">{{Cite news |last=Clements |first=Andrew |date=22 November 2002 |title=Music for the Duke of Lerma |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/nov/22/classicalmusicandopera.artsfeatures3 |access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref>
===Opera=== In 2020 McCreesh's recording of Purcell's semi-opera ''King Arthur'' was judged best recording of the year by ''BBC Music Magazine''.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The winners of the BBC Music Magazine Awards |url=http://www.classical-music.com/article/winners-2020-bbc-music-magazine-awards |magazine=BBC Music Magazine |access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.rayfieldallied.com/artists/paul-mccreesh/ Paul McCreesh's management website (Rayfield Allied)] *[http://www.gabrieli.com The Gabrieli Consort & Players] *[http://www.themonteverdiviolins.org/ The Monteverdi violins] Info about the Gabrielis' replica Baroque violins * {{cite web |url= http://mozartcircle.porticodoro.com/mzc/interviews/?Id=May2017 |title= MozartCircle Interview: 10 Questions with Paul McCreesh |date= 1 May 2017 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McCreesh, Paul}} Category:English choral conductors Category:British male conductors (music) Category:1960 births Category:Deutsche Grammophon artists Category:Living people Category:British performers of early music Category:21st-century British conductors (music) Category:21st-century British male musicians