ERIC CROSS
Educated in Norwich, and at Birmingham University, Eric Cross joined the staff at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1978, where he is now a Professor in the Department of Music, and Dean of Cultural Affairs.
Eric Cross's particular field of academic expertise is the Italian Baroque, with special reference to the operas of Vivaldi. He has published in the leading British musicological journals, and is much in demand for specialist reviews, programme notes, essays and CD booklets. He has prepared scores of several complete Vivaldi operas for performances in New York, Denmark, Germany and Poland, and in England by the English Bach and Buxton Festivals. His editions have been used for the first UK performances of Tito Manlio (performed by La Serenissima at the Royal College of Music) and of Arsilda, Regina di Ponto and Tamerlano (both given their British premieres at the Newcastle Early Music Festival under his direction), and for the Chandos recording of Ottone in villa conducted by Richard Hickox. He has also prepared selections of arias and sinfonias for recordings and performances by Emma Kirkby and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, James Bowman, Catherine Bott, and the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
Eric Cross has written and presented illustrated talks for BBC Radio 3, and has contributed to the public lecture series at Newcastle University with talks on Handel, Vivaldi, and Benjamin Britten. He continues to organise the highly-popular lunch-time concerts in the King's Hall. He also directs workshops for the North East Early Music Forum.
Always active as a conductor, Eric Cross has worked with the Newcastle University Choir and Orchestra and Madrigal Choir. He has conducted the Newcastle upon Tyne Bach Choir since 1984 in works ranging from Bach and Handel through Cherubini and Bruckner to Delius, Tippett and Britten.
He is also Director of Cappella Novocastriensis, a choir specialising in Early Music, and in particular the performance of choral works with period instruments. Both choirs frequently promote unjustly neglected works from various periods (including some specially prepared performing editions), as well as commissioning new works from composers such as Wilfred Josephs, Stephen Ingham and John Joubert.
