The George Hurst Archive is intended for conductors, students and teachers of conducting, musicians more generally, and others interested in conducting and orchestral performance.
The website is intended as a means of preserving Hurst’s teaching legacy, and also as a point of reference for those studying orchestral performance more broadly.
It presents a broad range of material relating to George Hurst’s teaching and performing career, in the following categories:
Video Archive
The extensive video archive is the main component of the site. George Hurst’s teaching is presented here in a variety of ways, from short clips relating to elements of conducting technique and musical principles, to longer videos in which entire movements are demonstrated with orchestra or with piano.
It is the intention that this archive will continue to grow, and we invite former students of George who have video footage featuring his teaching (and especially any practical demonstrations from this context), to submit this to The George Hurst Foundation here for editing and inclusion on these pages.
Sound Archive
The Sound Archive presents George’s work as a performer, mostly outside of a pedagogical context. In addition to a wide-ranging interview with George, it is intended eventually to include selected BBC radio broadcasts of his performances as a valuable resource in tracing his interpretative practice over many decades.
Biographical Material
The website will present the only full-length biography of George Hurst currently available, providing readers with a fascinating portrait of his life and times, as a conductor at the centre of British orchestral performance during the mid-to-late twentieth century. This biography is still under development.
We also provide a collection of obituary material, a comprehensive discography, and a history of the renowned conducting course established by Hurst at the Canford Summer School of Music
Musical Approach |Conducting Technique | Composition
These articles provide an outline of George’s fundamental musical and technical approach to the art of conducting, alongside linking with the video and sound archives to illustrate his interpretative approach to a selection of works that were at the core of his wide-ranging repertoire.
George’s activities as a composer are also documented here — composition having been, in his own words, his ‘first love’.
Concert History
An archive of concert programme listings and reviews, providing a valuable resource for those responsible for programming orchestral concerts, and those interested in the history of British musical life during the mid-to-late twentieth century.