| Biography | Robert Ponsonby is the son of Noel Ponsonby. Born in 1926 at Oxford, when his father was organist of Christ Church Cathedral, he was educated at Eton, where he was taught piano by Thomas Dunhill and organ by Henry Ley. After three years service in the Brigade of Guards, he went up to Trinity College, Oxford, as organ scholar. In 1950, when President of the University Opera Club, he sang in the Clubs production of Berliozs The Trojans.
Joining the administrative staff of Glyndebourne in 1951, he at the same time served as assistant to the artistic director of the Edinburgh Festival, Ian Hunter, whom he succeeded in 1956. He resigned from the festival in 1960 and worked for a while in America and the Bahamas, returning to England and to music in 1964, when he was appointed chief executive of the Scottish National Orchestra. After eight happy and productive years in Glasgow he succeeded William Glock as the BBCs Controller, Music, directing the Proms from 1974 to 1985, when he retired.
Robert Ponsonby was made CBE in 1983and is a trustee of the Michael Tippett Musical Foundation. His book Musical Heroes, published in 2009, records his acquaintance, and sometimes friendships, with such figures as Adrian Boult, Thomas Beecham, Yehudi Menuhin, William Walton and Michael Tippett. |