Conductor & Kantanti Ensemble Director
Lee Reynolds is a conductor, bass-baritone, composer and recording producer based in London. He is Director of the Kantanti Ensemble and New Sussex Singers, and in January 2010 succeeded Gareth Malone (BBC The Choir) as Director of the London Symphony Orchestra Youth Choirs. In 2010 he made his conducting debuts at the Barbican Centre and LSO St Luke’s, and deputised for Valery Gergiev at a rehearsal of Mahler’s Symphony No 1 with the London Symphony Orchestra. He was appointed Music Director of the Glyndebourne Youth Company in 2011 and will be Chorus Master for their forthcoming production of Imago.
Conducting highlights include Brahms Symphony No 4, and Dvořák Serenade No 2 with the Haydn Chamber Orchestra, London, Handel Messiah, Mozart Requiem and Fauré Requiem (Kantanti Ensemble). With the New Sussex Singers, he has given performances of JS Bach St John Passion, Stainer The Crucifixion and the European première of Strimple Mother and Child, as well as memorial concerts for Henry Allingham, the oldest surviving First World War veteran. Other recent performances include Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana and Milhaud La Création du Monde, and working as chorus master for Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky at Guildford Cathedral. As part of his education work, Lee has developed a programme of singing workshops in deprived inner-city London schools.
Lee has been Musical Director on many theatre productions, including Rodgers & Hammerstein Carousel, The King and I, Cole Porter Anything Goes, Sondheim A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Charles Strouse Annie, and ATA Productions’ Life on Earth at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. In 2006 he was awarded the diploma of the Royal Schools of Music in cello performance, and represented the UK at the Freiburg International Music Festival, performing the complete Bach Cello Suites. Other recitals have included the cello sonatas of Chopin, Debussy, Shostakovich, Beethoven & Rakhmaninov, and he received both first and second prizes at the 2006 Croser-Hughes Chamber Music Competition. As a bass-baritone, Lee’s onstage credits include Billy Bigelow (Rodgers & Hammerstein Carousel), Jimmy (Tesori Thoroughly Modern Millie) and Luiz (Gilbert & Sullivan Gondoliers). Lee has fronted the UniS Big Band, and regularly performs with the chamber choir Surrey Cantata in the UK and abroad.
He has produced commercial classical recordings with Surrey Brass and the Serlo Consort, and composing commissions have included music for radio, concert performance, ballet and theatre band. Last year he updated Gilbert & Sullivan Iolanthe for big band to celebrate the centenary of Lewes Operatic Society. Many of his arrangements have been performed by the LSO, including a large-scale commission performed at the concert celebrating 20 years of LSO Discovery and he made his LSO performance debut in June 2011, conducting Copland Appalachian Spring. An album of Lee's bespoke arrangements will be recorded by the LSO at Abbey Road Studios in June.
