Education
University of Bristol. Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
University of Bristol. Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
He has presented programmes on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 3, Radio 4 and World Service. Chris de Souza is a Graduate in Music from Bristol University (1966) and a Graduate of the Directors’ Course of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has worked in the media as a Theatre director, Radio Music producer and presenter.
Head of Music at Street Bernadette Catholic Secondary School in Bristol from 1966 to 1970, he went on to become a Producer with Sadlers Wells/English National Opera in 1971.
From then on De Souza produced over 100 operas around the world, among which the soundtrack for the fireworks display in the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth World War II Since 1966 he wrote and performed several compositions like 8 Epithalamia for Organ, Maharajahs, The Ides of March, Children of the Light. In 1977 he devised the Liszt Festival of London editing and directing the first modern performance of Franz Liszt"s opera Don Sanche.
As a composer his music has been widely broadcast and performed, with recent commissions from the British Broadcasting Corporation, Southern Sinfonia, West Berkshire Maestros and the Lymington Choral Society. In 1975 he joined the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio London becoming the British Broadcasting Corporation first Proms Producer in 1987.
He presented Radio London"s arts programme Look Stop Listen, Performance On 3 (with Humphrey Burton) and Discovering Music on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 3 and Sky Digital.
He has also presented on television, British Broadcasting Corporation World Service, and broadcasts classical channels for many airlines. Foreign 25 years, he has presented the Classical Channel on Emirates, and most recently presented the opera broadcasts on CNBCTV. De Souza is an author of classical music guides like Looking at music, Listening to Music, The Kingfisher Young People"s Book of Music, and wrote articles to The Listener, Music and Musicians, Musical Time and other magazines. As narrator he appears in works like Peter and the Wolf and The Carnival of the Animals, of which he performed his own version in the presence of His Royal Highness Princess Alexandra.
Recent compositions include Bottom’s Dream commissioned for the British Broadcasting Corporation Singers, a Trombone Concerto commissioned by Southern Sinfonia, and Loved and Unloved for the Lymington Choral Society.
He is a music teacher and works with many children"s theatre groups. De Souza took over from Ann Wright as conductor of Cranford Choral Society in 2015.
De Souza has adjudicated for the British Broadcasting Corporation Young Musician of the Year award, the Royal Over-Seas League, and the Newbury Young Musician of the Year and chairs the Parkhouse Award for chamber music
From 1986 to 1999 he was a member of the British Youth Opera. He is also the Artistic Director of Southern Sinfonia in Newbury, a member of the Royal Society of Musicians and of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.