Gardiner, John Eliot

English conductor; b. Springhead, Dorset, April 20, 1943. Gardiner was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and while still a student there founded the Monteverdi Choir in 1964. He then went to France to study with the famous music-theory professor NADIA BOULANGER. Upon his return to England, he took postgraduate courses at King's College, London.

Gardiner made his first major conducting appearance at the Promenade Concerts in London in 1968. He made his first appearance at the Sadler's Wells Opera in 1969 conducting WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART's Die Zauberflöte. In 1973 he debuted at London's Covent Garden conducting CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK'S Iphigénie en Tauride. In 1977 he founded the English Baroque Soloists, which he conducted in performances utilizing original instruments of the BAROQUE era. From 1980 to 1983 he was principal conductor of the CBC Orchestra in Vancouver. He served as artistic director of the Göttingen Handel Festivals from 1981 to 1990. From 1983 to 1988 he organized the Orchestre Révolutionaire et Romantique, an orchestra devoted to performing scores on period instruments. He conducted it in LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN'S Ninth Symphony at its U.S. debut in N.Y. in 1996.

From 1991 to 1994 Gardiner was chief conductor of the North German Radio symphony Orchestra in Hamburg. As a guest conductor, he has appeared in principal music centers of the world. In 1990 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. His repertoire is immense, ranging from the pre-Baroque to modern eras. His interpretations reflect his penchant for meticulous scholarship while maintaining stimulating performance standards.

In addition to his conducting work, Gardiner prepared performing editions of a number of scores by JEAN PHILIPPE RAMEAU and others. He is credited with the discovery (in Paris in 1971) of the manuscript of Rameau's opera Les Boreades, which he conducted at Aix-en-Provence in 1982.