PHILIP REED
Philip read music at Leeds University and at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where he completed a PhD thesis. An acknowledged authority on the life and works of Benjamin Britten, he has published a number of books, including four volumes of Britten's Selected Letters. He was Staff Musicologist of the Britten-Pears Library at Aldeburgh, before joining English National Opera in 1997.

Philip has conducted orchestras and choirs for over twenty-five years, and was appointed music director of the Bury St Edmunds Bach Choir in 2001. He was co-director of the Aldeburgh Festival Singers (1985-7), conductor of the Aldeburgh Music Club (1985-2001), and music director of the Phoenix Singers, Framlingham (1996-2001).

At the Aldeburgh Festival he has assisted Steuart Bedford, Oliver Knussen and Mstislav Rostropovich, and has conducted many concerts at Snape Maltings, including performances of both Bach Passions , Britten's The Company of Heaven, Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, and the Brahms, Mozart and Verdi Requiems . He has also worked with young people: for Jubilee Opera he has conducted Britten's Noye's Fludde, Peter Maxwell Davies's Cinderella and the world premiere of Douglas Young's James and the Giant Peach.

With the Bury Bach Choir he has conducted Bach's St John Passion, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, B minor Mass and St Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Mass in C, Brahms's Schicksalslied and Requiem, Britten's Cantata Misericordium, St Nicolas and The Company of Heaven, Elgar's Music Makers, Handel's Messiah and Samson, Haydn's 'Nelson and 'Harmonie' Masses, the Requiems of Faure, Mozart and Verdi, Mozart's C minor Mass, Poulenc's Gloria and Rossini's Petite messe solennelle.

Plans with the choir include Faure's Requiem, Handel's Messiah and Haydn's Creation.