The John Wilson Orchestra

In the 1990s, while still enrolled as a student at London's Royal College of Music, conductor and musicologist John Wilson established the John Wilson Orchestra. The group's programming reflects his particular enthusiasms for film scores, orchestral jazz, and light classical repertoire. Soundtrack credits encompass The Gathering Storm together with the Grammy-nominated music for Beyond the Sea, Kevin Spacey's portrayal of Bobby Darin. Widespread recognition arrived in 2009 when a BBC Proms concert marking the 75th anniversary of MGM musicals was televised, launching a run of annual appearances at the festival. The following year brought the orchestra's first nationwide tour and the holiday broadcast Swinging Christmas, plus a semi-staged My Fair Lady that drew on music reconstructed from the 1964 film rather than the original stage version. EMI sessions began in 2011, opening with an MGM musicals collection and continuing with Rodgers & Hammerstein material. Wilson and the orchestra resurfaced in 2016 with the live Royal Albert Hall recording Gershwin in Hollywood Live, which saluted the film orchestrations of composer George Gershwin.