Background

Donald Burrows was born on December 28, 1945, in London, United Kingdom.

Education

Donald studied History and Music at Trinity Hall Cambridge, where he got a Bachelor of Arts in 1968, Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1969, and a Master of Arts in 1971. He became a part-time postgraduate student at the Open University in 1977, completing his Doctor of Philosophy on the subject of Handel and the English Chapel Royal in the Reigns of Queen Anne and King George I in 1981, the first Doctor of Philosophy degree to be awarded in the University's Music Department.

Career

Following the completion of his undergraduate studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Donald Burrows worked as a provincial musician in Oxfordshire, teaching music, performing, and conducting.

While in Oxfordshire he conducted a substantial repertory of choral and orchestral music with the Abingdon and District Musical Society and the Wantage Choral Society, including a performance of Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts in Dorchester Abbey. With the Oxford Holiday Orchestra, his performances included Elgar's Symphonies 1 and 2. He conducted his first complete performance of Handel's Messiah in 1971, marking the start of specialist interest in Handel's music. In 1972-1973 he reconstructed Handel's Anthem on the Peace, for which he conducted the first modern performance in 1973, accompanied by his first substantial article, in The Musical Times for December 1973. This was followed by the first modern performances of some of Handel's Chapel Royal music in 1975, and of orchestrally-accompanied anthems by William Croft in 1979.

In 1982 he became a Lecturer in Music at the Open University, receiving a promotion to Senior Lecturer in 1989 and to Professor of Music in 1995. From 1991 to 2002 he was also Head of the Music Department.

Burrows was a founding member of the Handel Institute in 1983 and is now Chairman of the Trustees and Council. He was a member of the Advisory Board for the Maryland Handel Festival from 1988 to 2001 and was also a member of the Advisory Board for Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

He has been a member of the Händel-Gesellschaft since 1987 and a Vice-President since 1999.

In 1990 he conducted Handel's oratorio Theodora at the Händel-Festspiele in Halle-an-der-Saale, the city of Handel's birth. He has given lectures and seminars about Handel's music in Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan. In 2004 he co-directed a performance/study day on Handel's church music for the London Handel Festival, conducting part of the evening concert performance.

From 1996 to 2000 he was a Board member of the Gerald Coke Handel Foundation and from 2000-2002 a member of the Advisory Committee for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, The British Library.

Since June 2004 he has contributed to programs on BBC Radio3 and Radio 4 on musical topics, including English choral singing and Handel's major oratorios. In April 2009 he appeared on The One Show, interviewed by Giles Brandreth on the River Thames about Handel's 'Water Music.'

On March 20, 2005, coinciding with the publication of his book "Handel and the English Chapel Royal," he conducted a program of Handel's Music for the Chapel Royal, in his own editions, at the Episcopal Cathedral of St John, Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the Cathedral Chamber Choir and a period-instrument orchestra, the Santa Fe Pro Musica. This was part of the 2005 International Handel Festival at Albuquerque and Santa Fe, running jointly with the biennial conference of the American Handel Society.

In 2006-2007 he also conducted performances of Handel's church music for the University of Portsmouth, and for the Deal and Walmer Handelian Society.

In 2015 Donald Burrows retired from the Open University as Emeritus Professor of Music.

Burrows is at present director of the 'Handel Documents Project,' based at the Open University, to collect together documentary material from Handel's lifetime relating to the composer: publication, eventually in five volumes, is in progress from Cambridge University Press.

Burrows has published, along with the books mentioned above, a number of principal music editions of works by Handel and Elgar. These editions, like much of Burrows's work, are meant to meld historical scholarship with practical information for performing musicians.

Achievements

• Donald Burrows, Professor of Music at the Open University, is recognized internationally as a leading scholar on the life and music of George Frideric Handel. He is the author, co-author, or editor of seven books about the composer, and the editor of several major music editions. He also has a special interest in the music of Edward Elgar, reflected in journal articles and music editions. His work is informed by considerable practical experience as a performer, principally as a conductor and keyboard player, but also as a violinist and singer.
  
  In the year 2000, he was awarded the Händel Preis der Stadt Halle, and in 2010 he received the award 'Best Book of the Year, Classical Music Division' from the Music Pen Club Japan for the Japanese edition of "The Cambridge Companion to Handel."

Works

More photos

• book

  • Handel: Messiah

    (This new guide to Handel's most celebrated work traces th...)

    1991
  • Handel and the English Chapel Royal

    (Handel's English church music spans the complete period o...)

    1984
  • Ariodante

    ("Ariodante" was the first work which Handel composed for ...)

    2007
  • Camb Companion to Handel

    (Handel is recognized as one of the principal creative fig...)

    1997
  • Handel

    (Handel is one of the most remarkable figures in the histo...)

    2012
  • Aria Album from Handel's Operas for Tenor
  • Te Deum in A Major 2012
  • As Pants the Hart: Vocal Score 2008
  • Let God Arise: Chapel Royal Version 2012
  • L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato 2015
  • A Catalogue of Handel's Musical Autographs 1994
  • As Pants the Hart: Vocal Score 2008
  • The Anthem on the Peace 1981
  • Music and revolution, Verdi 1976

Views

Burrows's publications reflect his wish to balance (and, where possible, connect) biographical, historical, or social topics with the practical and stylistic aspects of music so that his books and articles are complemented by musical editions for modern performers.

Membership

Burrows is a member of the Royal Musical Association and Royal College of Organists.

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  Royal Musical Association , United Kingdom

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  Royal College of Organists , United Kingdom

Interests

• Steam locomotives, model railways

• Music & Bands

  George Frideric Handel, Edward Elgar