JOHN RUSHBY-SMITH
RECORDING PRODUCER; COMPOSER.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
John Rushby-Smith began his
musical career at the age of 8 as a chorister in the cathedral choir of
Southwell Minster. After leaving school he studied Music at Oxford University,
where his tutors were Bernard Rose, Egon Wellesz and Edmund Rubbra. He joined
the B.B.C. in 1962 as a Studio Manager and became Senior Music Studio Manager
in 1966. In 1971 he was appointed as studio director of broadcasts by the
B.B.C.Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1990, since when he has been
working as an independent record producer.
BBC AND PROFESSIONAL FUNCTIONS
While at the B.B.C. he undertook
the sound supervision of several hundred Proms broadcasts, innumerable studio
productions (including several operas) and countless live relays from a variety
of major concert and operatic venues up and down the country and abroad. The
operatic relays included two complete Ring Cycles from the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden. He was appointed Technical Director for the major BBC/Barbican
retrospective "Stockhausen - Music and Machines" in 1985. He has
worked frequently with most of the world's major orchestras, ensembles,
conductors and soloists, and has travelled extensively in the course of his work,
both for the B.B.C. and as a freelance. He contributed articles to
various music and hi-fi journals and to the BBC Proms Prospectus, and has given
talks on sound recording for BBC Radio 3 and for Radio France. He speaks
fluent French and German and is highly experienced in all studio techniques.
A composer in his own right, he has had works performed by leading
artists and ensembles on radio in the UK, Europe and the US, as well as at
international festivals.
COMMERCIAL RECORDINGS
His commercial record productions
include recordings for BBC Records, CBS, EMI, EMI France, Erato, Etcetera,
Finlandia, Fonit Cetra, Kiwi-Pacific, Largo, Marin Opera, Meridian, Redcliffe,
RCA, RPO Records, Transatlantic, World Records (Canada) and others.
Artists include Pierre Amoyal, Dame Janet Baker, Daniel Barenboim,
Richard Rodney Bennett, Pierre Boulez, José van Dam, Maria Ewing,
Margaret Field, Lawrence Foster, James Galway, Nicolai Gedda, Heather Harper,
Barbara Hendricks, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Yvonne Kenny, Ernst Kovacic, Seiji
Ozawa, Geoffrey Parsons, Krystof Penderecki, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Esa-Pekka
Salonen, Peter Serkin, Karlheinz Stockhausen and many others. (see under John’s
Discography)
AWARDS
In 1990 he undertook the
production for EMI France of Georges Enesco's opera OEDIPE, conducted by
Lawrence Foster and recorded in Monte Carlo with José van Dam, Nicolai
Gedda, Gabriel Bacquier, Brigitte Fassbaender, Marjana Lipovsek, Gino Quilico,
Barbara Hendricks and others. The recording won le Prix de l'Academie
Charles Cros, le Diapason d'Or de l'Année 1991, le Grand Prix de l'Academie du
Disque Lyrique and le Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Academie du Disque
Français. This recording received overwhelming acclaim in the
international press and was runner up for The Gramophone Record of the
Year. Several other productions have won major awards, among them Gramophone
Awards for the Erato recording of Pli selon Pli by Boulez and the EMI
C.D. of Tippet's The Mask of Time with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which
also won the French Grand Prix de l'Academie Charles Cros; he also won the Prix
du Disque for the best recording of French Opera with Rameau's Naïs for
Erato.
ACOUSTICS RESEARCH
John Rushby-Smith is an expert in
the acoustical properties of concert halls. In 1987 he undertook extensive
research on behalf of the BBC, which involved visits to over 70 major halls
worldwide. He produced two monographs for the BBC, and gave a paper on the
subject to the 1988 Cambridge Conference of the Institute of Acoustics, as a
consequence of which and was elected as a Member of the Institute.
PUBLICATIONS, TALKS, LECTURES & ARTICLES
Talk “The Cave of Harmony” (on sound balance) for BBC Radio Three.
Participation in debate on “Music Weekly” (Radio Three).
Article “How the Ring was Rung” for Studio Sound (about
broadcasting Wagner's Ring Cycle from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden).
Articles “Broadcasting the Proms” in 1982 and 1986 Proms
prospectuses.
Invited as participant in public debates from AES Paris 1986 and
1988 (Radio France).
BBC Delegate at 1975 EBU (European Broadcasting Union) Conference
on music balance and A.R.D. Tonmeistertagung in Cologne.
BBC delegate at the Stockholm Conference on Electronic Music 1980.
Frequent lecturer on BBC training courses.
Secondment to RTHK (Radio Hong Kong) as instructor in music
production techniques 1982/3.
Invited as advisory participant in Australian Broadcasting
Commission music producers' conference 1986.
Researched and wrote a two-part internal BBC publication “Current
Trends in Auditorium Design for Music”
based on personal experience of over 70 concert halls around the world,
commissioned a by BBC Programme Operations. Invited by the Wheatland Foundation
to participate in its Seminar on Orchestras, Jerusalem 1986.
Invited to give a paper “A
Subjective Assessment of the Acoustical Properties of Concert Halls” to the 1988 Institute of Acoustics
Conference in Cambridge.
Articles on the Production of Oedipe and on Beethoven's Diabelli
Variations for the journal Classic CD.
Invited to contribute the chapter on Recording the Orchestra for The
Cambridge Companion to the Orchestra, (Cambridge .University Press.
2003.)
SOUND PROJECTION
Frequent engagements to perform
works by Babbitt, Berio, Birtwistle, Harvey, Reich, Stockhausen, Swayne, Varèse
etc., Technical Director of BBC/Barbican “Stockhausen - Music and
Machines” Festival 1985, for Giles Swayne's “Cry” (1987) at the QEH and for The
Royal Festival Hall's Steve Reich Festival Autumn 1988. Several performances
(solo billing) as sound-projectionist at The Proms, The South Bank, The
Edinburgh International Festival, The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival,
and British Arts Council "Network" Tours. Also abroad,
including the La Rochelle and Strasbourg-Musica Festivals in France, at
Rolandseck (Bonn), the Liederhalle (Stuttgart) and the 1994 Musik Triennale,
Köln in Germany, at La Piccola Scala in
Milan, the Maggio Musicale Festival in Florence and at Bologna, Perugia, Naples
and Rome in Italy.
LANGUAGES
Fully fluent in French and
German.
MUSICAL COMPOSITION
(See under John’s Compositions)
RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Painting (watercolour and
acrylic); computer-aided artwork and design (including this website); add-on
aircraft livery and panel design for MS Flight Simulator (see www.avsim.com)
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS & LISTINGS.
Member of the British Academy of
Composers and Songwriters; Member of the Performing Right Society; Founder
member of the Sonic Arts Network; Listed in the International Who's Who in
Music and the British Music Year Book.
Click below for
If you arrived
here via a direct link or search engine