President
A Voice of British Musical Life
Brian Kay brings a remarkable lifetime of music-making, broadcasting and storytelling to the Promenade Concert Orchestra. Today, he serves as its President.
Indeed, Brian is one of the most recognisable and warmly regarded voices in British musical life. Throughout his career, he has moved effortlessly between the broadcasting studio and the concert platform.
In particular, his many broadcasts for BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4 include two much-loved programmes of his own. These are Brian Kay’s Sunday Morning and Brian Kay’s Light Programme. He has also presented long-running favourites such as Friday Night is Music Night and Melodies for You.
The Vienna New Year’s Day Concert
For fifteen years, Brian presented the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s famous New Year’s Day Concert for radio and television. In doing so, he brought the elegance, sparkle and tradition of Viennese music to audiences across the UK.
Notably, it is a musical world that sits beautifully alongside the Promenade Concert Orchestra’s own repertoire. This includes light orchestral classics, waltzes, marches, stage music and unforgettable melodies.
A Distinguished Choral Conductor
On the concert platform, Brian has narrated, presented and conducted programmes with many of the UK’s leading orchestras.
As a choral conductor, Brian spent ten years as Chorus Master of the Huddersfield Choral Society. He has also conducted the Cheltenham Bach Choir and the Cecilian Singers. In addition, he has led Bradford Festival Choral Society and the Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival.
Today, he conducts Vaughan Williams’s Leith Hill Musical Festival and The Burford Singers near his home in the Cotswolds. He is also Principal Conductor of The Really Big Chorus. Notably, he regularly conducts massed voices with them at the Royal Albert Hall and in spectacular locations around the world.
The King’s Singers and Beyond
Brian is also known internationally as a founder member of The King’s Singers. With this group, he performed around 2,000 concerts worldwide.
Indeed, his wonderfully varied career has taken him to the Royal Variety Show twice. It has also brought him into the sound world of Paul McCartney, Harry Secombe and Pink Floyd. He even provided the singing voice of Papageno in the Hollywood film Amadeus.
A Fitting President for the Orchestra
Above all, Brian has a deep affection for melody, a gift for communication and a rare breadth of musical experience. Together, these qualities make him a fitting and much-valued President of the Promenade Concert Orchestra. Naturally, his career reflects everything the PCO celebrates: musical excellence, warmth, entertainment, elegance and the enduring joy of live performance.
A Message from Brian Kay
Brian Kay writes:
Major milestones are always worth celebrating. To have completed a decade of outstanding concerts is a massive feather-in-the-cap for Howard and the orchestra.
My favourite definition of ‘Light Music’ is music ‘where the melody is more important than what you do with it’. And thank goodness the wider world of music has gone back to believing that you can’t beat a GOOD TUNE! There are so many about. All you need is enthusiastic experts like Howard to dig them out and give people an opportunity to hear them.
For seven years, I presented my Brian Kay’s Light Programme on BBC Radio 3. During that time, I included music by no fewer than 700 Light Music composers. The PCO now has 2,000 items in its own library. That’s remarkable, and great news for all lovers of light music. My old friend and colleague David Jacobs used to call it “our kind of music”!
On their brilliantly-achieved and well-deserved 10th anniversary, I send my warmest congratulations to Howard and the orchestra. I wish them every continuing success.