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David Russell Hulme

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David Russell Hulme in 2009

David Russell Hulme (born 19 June 1951) is a Welsh conductor and musicologist. He is an emeritus reader and the former director of music at Aberystwyth University and is known for his research and publications on the music of Arthur Sullivan, the composer of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. He is also an authority on the music of Edward German.

Life and career

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Born in Machynlleth, Wales, the son of Lena Catherine née Cudworth (1925–1994) and Albert Lumley Lewis Hulme (1919–2009)[1] and the grandson of railway engineer Albert Edward Hulme.[2] Russell Hulme studied music under Ian Parrott at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and studied conducting with Sir Adrian Boult. He gained MA and PhD degrees for his research into British Music.[3][4] He completed his PhD thesis, "The operettas of Sir Arthur Sullivan: a study of available autograph scores", in 1986 at the University of Wales.[5] It has been referred to in numerous G&S symposia and newsletters.[6]

Russell Hulme regularly conducts throughout Britain and Ireland and in 2019 appeared for the first time as guest conductor with the Zaporozhye Symphony Orchestra in Ukraine.[7] In 2001 he toured Australia and New Zealand, where he conducted the State Orchestra of Victoria (now Orchestra Victoria), the Auckland Philharmonia and the Sydney Opera House Orchestra. He has worked with the Carl Rosa Opera Company as conductor and chorus-master, including the company's tours of North America in 2004 and 2006.[3] Russell Hulme was the Director of Music at North Hertfordshire College, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, for almost ten years, leaving to become, in 1992, the first director of music at Aberystwyth University, where he was appointed emeritus reader following his retirement in July 2020.[8] For the university he conducted the symphony orchestra (Philomusica) and the University Singers (formerly known as the Choral Union). He also became conductor of the Aberystwyth Choral Society in 2002.[4] He was the recipient of the 2012 Glyndŵr Award for "an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales" presented at the 2012 Machynlleth Festival.[9] He has published articles for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the BBC Proms,[3] and for Oxford University Press, he edited a 2006 edition of William Walton's Symphony No. 2 and a 2002 score of Haydn's Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War), among other pieces.[4][10] His reconstructions of partially lost scores and his orchestrations have been performed on recordings and radio broadcasts. His orchestrations include music composed by Neil Brand. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[3]

Opera magazine described Russell Hulme as "our leading authority on Sullivan's manuscripts".[4] He has acted as consultant on Sullivan scores with such opera companies as Welsh National Opera (Charles Mackerras's The Yeomen of the Guard), English National Opera (the Ken Russell/Jane Glover Princess Ida), New Sadler's Wells Opera and D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.[3] He edited Sullivan's music and advised for Mike Leigh's 1999 film Topsy-Turvy.[4] In 2000 Oxford University Press published his critical edition of the full and piano-vocal scores of Ruddigore (revised and reissued in 2017), and the same year, his edition of the rediscovered Sullivan D minor string quartet was published.[11] Russell Hulme has written articles on Gilbert and Sullivan[12] and other areas of British music, and he has lectured at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, where he also conducted a 2009 professional revival of Princess Ida and a production of The Arcadians.[3] He has reconstructed songs cut from Gilbert and Sullivan operas where the music had been partially lost, including the Duke's first act aria from Patience.[13] He was also Consultant Editor to the 2016 Oxford University Press edition of The Yeomen of the Guard, edited by Colin Jagger.[14]

He is also a leading authority on the music of Edward German.[15] He was Senior Music Advisor and a conductor at the Sir Edward German Music Festivals at Whitchurch, Shropshire in 2006, 2009 and 2014 and created The Edward German Archive, a collection of the composer's manuscripts and papers now held by the British Library.[16] Russell Hulme conducted (and also edited the score and wrote liner notes for) the first complete recording of Tom Jones, by Edward German, released by Naxos in 2009. AllMusic rates the recording four stars out of five.[17] It reached No. 3 in the UK classical charts.[4] He also prepared performing editions of German's scores for recordings by the BBC Concert Orchestra, with John Wilson conducting, including a reconstructed orchestration for the "Marche Solonnelle", which had never been recorded.[18]

References

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  1. ^ Albert Lumley Lewis Hulme and Lena Catherine Cudworth, England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916–2005 for Q2-Apr-May-Jun 1949, Ancestry.com (subscription required); and Birth of David Russell Hulme to Cudworth (1951), England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007, Ancestry.com (subscription required)
  2. ^ Fuller, Martin. Talyllyn & Corris Steam Locomotives, The Appendices to Volumes 1 & 2, Imprint (2018), pp. 16–18 ISBN 978-1789261943
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Dr David Russell Hulme" Archived 26 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Aberystwyth University, accessed 28 December 2015
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Aberystwyth Choral Society: People" Archived 14 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Aberystwyth Choral Society, accessed 21 August 2015
  5. ^ Hulme, David Russell (1986). The operettas of Sir Arthur Sullivan: A study of available autograph scores. Aberystwyth University.
  6. ^ The Thesis is available online here. For mentions of symposia, see Archived 12 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ "Conducting Elgar in Ukraine", Aber News, Issue 35, June 2019
  8. ^ "Dr David Hulme", Aberystwyth University, accessed 4 August 2020
  9. ^ 2012 Machynlleth Festival programme Archived 13 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, MomaWales.org, August 2012
  10. ^ Information from the findbook website
  11. ^ Sullivan, Arthur. Quartette for two violins, viola and violoncello. (ed.) David Russell Hulme. Stowmarket, Suffolk: Kevin Mayhew, 2000
  12. ^ See, for example, The Usher’s Song, in the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society booklet commemorating the centenary of the first revivals of Trial by Jury and The Sorcerer (1984)
  13. ^ Information from Patience production website[permanent dead link‍]
  14. ^ Shepherd, Marc. "New Edition of Yeomen from Oxford University Press" Archived 9 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Oakapple Press, 7 February 2016
  15. ^ Article about Russell Hulme conducting Edward German works Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Russell Hulme at the Sir Edward German Festival, 2006 Archived 7 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Eddins, Stephen. "Edward German: Tom Jones, AllMusic, accessed 28 December 2015
  18. ^ Russell Hulme, David. Liner notes for German's Symphony No. 1, Dutton Epoch 2012 CDLX 7156; "The Tempter", the "Marche Solennelle", "The Willow Song" and various other pieces, Dutton Epoch 2012 CDLX 7285; and Symphony No. 2 and other pieces, Dutton Epoch 2007 CDLX 7202
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