Sad death of London’s foremost chorus master
RIPThe 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.
That’s the end of a very long era and Terry as a London singers’ fixer. May he rest in peace.
Sad to hear of his passing. He was a fine musician and a really nice guy.
We shouldn’t forget that he was a fine ensemble singer in his own right. I well remember his resonant bass adding a solid foundation to Elizabethan madrigals, even if that wasn’t the repertoire London Voices specialized in.
However, I had always thought it was Bernard Haitink who brought Terry to ROH, and I’m pretty sure the John Alldis Choir was always led by John Alldis!
Yes, I think youre absolutely right on all counts.
Terry taught music at Rickmansworth Grammar School and I was one of his pupils who benefitted from his superb teaching. It is great to know that he went on to develop his musical career in such prestigious roles as Director of the Royal Opera Chorus at Covent Garden and as Founder of London Voices. He also played basketball for England in the early 1960s and was a member of the Olympics team in 1964. All in all a very accomplished guy. May he rest in peace.
I am very proud to have sung with the Watford Philharmonic under the tutelage of Terry Edwards and am sad to learn of his death last september. he had so many funny stories to tell of his early days under Sir Georg Solti and I remember with great affection our performance of Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man. Rest in peace Terry. We all miss you.
Chris Brewerton
Tenor 2
I remember Terry Edwards as my basketball teacher at Rickmansworth Grammar School in 1963/64. He was first introduced to the school by performing “Old Man River” at Assembly, with a magnificent bass voice.Later on he coached the whole school to perform Fauré’s Requiem which we all thoroughly enjoyed. We all admired him immensely, particularly as he also signed up for the annual Boys/Masters rugby match and, although not really knowing the rules, he did very well…. Especially in the line outs! RIP Mr. Edwards