Sad death of London’s foremost chorus master

The death has been announced of Terry Edwards, founder of London Voices and one of the leading figures in choral music. He was 83.

Among other attrtibutes, being 6’9″ tall he played basketball for Great Britain in the 1964 Olympic Games.

Terry Edwards started out his chorus career leading the John Alldis Choir and Roger Norrington’s Schütz Choir of London. In 1973 he formed London Voices and became manager of Swingle 2, moving on to Electric Phoenix and the London Sinfonietta, where he worked closely with Luciano Berio and manyb other avant-gardists.

Sir Georg Solti brought him to Covent Garden where he rehearsed the Royal Opera Chorus in 111 operas, working with 68 conductors including Abbado, Gatti, Gergiev, Haitink, Mehta, Pappano, Rattle and Thielemann. He worked with Solti in Chicago and with the LSO on the Star Wars soundtracks.