David Parry

Throughout his extensive career, conductor David Parry concentrated on two principal domains: bel canto opera, with particular attention to rarely staged works, and operas presented in English translation. He also directed and documented a range of instrumental concert pieces. Among these were the violin concertos of George Lloyd, captured in 1998 by violinist Cristina Anghelescu and the Philharmonia Orchestra; the Lyrita label reissued that recording in 2024. Parry’s discography ultimately surpassed 150 entries.

Born in London on March 23, 1949, Parry studied at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music without initially envisioning a conducting career. Vocal instructor and choral conductor Audrey Langford recognized his aptitude and proposed that he lead a production of Verdi’s La Traviata under her auspices. Bass-baritone Geraint Evans attended a performance and likewise encouraged Parry to pursue conducting seriously. Parry then traveled to Spain for lessons with Sergiu Celibidache, where he led numerous scores, among them the Spanish premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. His British debut came with Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the English National Theatre; he subsequently appeared with Opera North, the Glyndebourne Opera, and Dortmund Opera in West Germany.

Between 1983 and 1987 Parry served as music director of the English Touring Opera. In the final year of that tenure he made his first commercial recording, directing the Philharmonia Orchestra in Donizetti’s seldom-heard Emilia di Liverpool. Over the ensuing three and a half decades he amassed a lengthy sequence of releases, frequently issuing multiple titles within a single year. He also appeared as guest conductor with numerous ensembles in Britain and elsewhere, among them the English National Opera, the Greek National Opera, the Staatstheater Stuttgart, and the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid.

Although Parry recorded for several companies, the Chandos and Opera Rara catalogs contain the bulk of his output. His Chandos projects centered on English-language opera, including Donizetti’s Lucia of Lammermoor (2002). The Opera Rara sessions encompassed both neglected scores by major composers and operas by such infrequently encountered figures as Giovanni Pacini, Simon Mayr, and Saverio Mercadante. Parry’s comparatively rare instrumental recordings include a 2011 Nimbus account of Bach keyboard concertos with pianist Nick van Bloss and the Philharmonia Orchestra. He likewise conducted George Lloyd’s violin concertos in 1998, shortly after the composer’s death; the sessions, originally planned for Lloyd himself, featured violinist Cristina Anghelescu and appeared again on Lyrita in 2024.