Paul Spicer

Biography

Paul Spicer (born 6 June 1952) is an English composer, conductor, and organist. He taught choral conducting at the Royal College of Music and conducted the RCM Chamber Choir between 1995 and 2008. Until his retirement in July 2022 he also taught at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and conducted their chamber choir which records for Somm Records. He also teaches at Oxford and Durham universities. Since 2004 he has been the conductor of the Petersfield Festival. He was Senior Producer for BBC Radio 3 for the Midlands Region based in Birmingham between 1984 and 1990 after which he moved to be artistic director of the Lichfield Festival. He also produced for various record companies over many years. He founded the Finzi Singers in 1984 making many recordings for Chandos Records. He conducts the Birmingham Bach Choir and the Whitehall Choir in London. His compositions include two oratorios for Easter and for Advent with libretti by the Dr Tom Wright and a choral symphony 'Unfinished Remembering' (2014) to a libretto by Euan Tait commemorating the outbreak of World War 1. He runs a series of choral courses under the banner of The English Choral Experience based mainly at Abbey Dore in Herefordshire.

Spicer is a champion of early 20th century British composers. He founded the Finzi Singers and is a trustee of the Finzi Trust and Chairman of the Finzi Friends. He is vice-president of the Herbert Howells Society, author of a biography of Howells and contributor to the volume of Howells studies published by Boydell & Brewer looking at the composer's music in depth. Spicer's chapter considers Howells' use of the melisma and his approach to word setting. He also contributed the article on Howells in the Dictionary of National Biography. His major biography of Sir George Dyson was published by Boydell & Brewer in 2014. He is an advisor to the Sir George Dyson Trust. He is now working on a biography of Sir Arthur Bliss to be published by Jonathan Hope in 2017. He has written practical guides to all of James MacMillan's and Benjamin Britten's choral music and his volume of English Pastoral Partsongs was published by Oxford University Press.

Paul Spicer is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an Honorary Research Fellow of Birmingham University, Honorary Fellow of University College, Durham University (Castle), and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

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