David Haslam - Principal Flute and Associate Conductor
Born in Leicestershire David Haslam began conducting at school. At the age of seventeen, he won the Walter Stokes scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied flute, piano and composition. As a student, he was offered the position of principal flute at the Scottish National Orchestra. He accepted and remained there until he joined Northern Sinfonia, again as principal flute, in 1962. Today he is acknowledged as one of the most admired flautists in the profession.
With the Northern Sinfonia, he is also involved in programme planning, composition, orchestration, solo-directing and conducting. Since his appointment as Associate Conductor in 1966, he has conducted numerous Sinfonia concerts at home and abroad, working with artists including John Lill, Ida Haendel, Radu Lupu, Robert Tear, Benjamin Luxon, Thomas Allen, Maurice Andre, Sheila Armstrong and Cécile Ousset. He also conducts concerts that include solo-directed concertos such as Mozart, Nielsen and Ibert.
As a talented composer, he wrote the music for six Johnny Morris stories and conducted all the children's concerts of the Northern Sinfonia in which he appeared. His other compositions include A Newcastle Overture, Five Preludes for clarinet and string quartet and incidental music to the TV film Barriers. In 1988, he recorded his arrangements of Northumbrian Songs with Thomas Allen, Sheila Armstrong, the Sinfonia and Chorus.
December 2001
