Dr Paul Foster
Paul studied piano, voice, conducting and composition at the University of London (Master of Music) and vocal studies at the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has a PhD in Music Composition from the University of Manchester and has been a visiting professor at the University of St Mark & St John.
He worked in London for many years in a wide range of music, covering music theatre, orchestral, symphonic wind orchestra and opera repertoire, and on projects with the Royal Opera House and London Sinfonietta, ranging from accompanying West End stars in recital to playing piano on the South Bank for the Sir Peter Maxwell Davies birthday celebrations. By contrast, his first experience of a recording studio was with Manfred Mann’s Earthband.
Returning to his native South-West, he has conducted almost one hundred performances at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth and has been conductor for award-winning performances with New Devon Opera and Plymouth G&S Theatre Company, holding the title of conductor emeritus with the latter. He regularly guests for orchestras and choirs across the region as a continuo player in oratorios.
On the educational side of his career, Paul has been Music Advisor for the largest of the London boroughs, an Ofsted inspector (shh!) and has trained around five thousand new primary and secondary teachers to teach music as part of their initial teacher training.
As well as working as a composer, conductor, pianist and university lecturer, he is an award-winning actor and published poet. He won a national award for his portrayal of the title role in ‘Amadeus’ in Greenwich – a version of Mozart’s persona that he does not seek to emulate when conducting that composer’s works!
Performances of Paul’s compositions have included the South Bank and abroad, and his works have been selected for the annual shortlist of the Society for the Promotion of New Music. One of his latest pieces, a large-scale oratorio called ‘The Lodestone of Love’, was commissioned by Plymouth Philharmonic Choir for the Mayflower 400 celebrations, delayed due to Covid restrictions, but which will be premiered in the Guildhall sometime in the coming months.
