| Biography | Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, (born 16 March 1934) is a British conductor.
Norrington studied at the Dragon School, Westminster School, Clare College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music under Adrian Boult among others. Norrington worked as a tenor through the 1960s, and in 1962 founded the Schütz Choir (later the Schütz Choir of London).
From 1969 to 1984, Norrington was music director of Kent Opera. In 1978, he founded the London Classical Players and remained their musical director until 1997. From 1985 to 1989, he was Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta. He is also president of the London Philharmonic Choir. In the USA, from 1990 to 1994, he was music director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's. In Europe, he was principal conductor of the Camerata Salzburg from 1997 to 2006. He served as principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2011. He was Artistic Advisor of the Handel and Haydn Society from 2006 to 2009. In January 2010, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra announced the appointment of Norrington as its next principal conductor, as of the 2011-2012 season, with an initial contract of 3 years.
Norrington is best known for performances of Baroque, Classical and Romantic music using period instruments and period style. He is a member of the historically informed performance movement. Norrington has advocated a limited or no use of vibrato in orchestral performances, which has brought him both acclaim and criticism. He has strictly followed Beethoven's original metronome markings in his symphonies, despite various critical comments that these markings were "miscalculated". He has conducted recordings of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Berlioz, and Brahms on period instruments.
With his wife, the choreographer Kay Lawrence, he formed in 1984 the Early Opera Project to complement his concert work in period-style performance, beginning with Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino that year, and touring Britain in 1986.
In August 2008, Norrington appeared in the reality TV talent show-themed television series, Maestro on BBC Two, when he led the judging panel. He conducted the Last Night of The Proms for the first time on 13 September 2008.
Norrington has been married twice. He and his second wife, Kay Lawrence, have a son, Tom. He was made an OBE in 1980, a CBE in 1990 and a Knight Bachelor in 1997. He is a Patron of Bampton Classical Opera and the Orchestra of St Paul's.
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