Richard Hickox CBE (5 March 1948 – 23 November 2008) was an English conduct… Read Full Bio ↴Richard Hickox CBE (5 March 1948 – 23 November 2008) was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music. He was born in Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire into a musical family. After attending the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe from 1959 to 1966, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1966 to 1967, then was an organ scholar at Queens' College, Cambridge from 1967 to 1970.

He founded the City of London Sinfonia in 1971, whose music director he had been since then, and the Richard Hickox Singers & Orchestra in the same year. In 1990 he co-founded baroque orchestra Collegium Musicum 90 with Simon Standage. From 1982-1990, he served as Artistic Director of the Northern Sinfonia. Since 1985, he has been Associate Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also chief conductor of the London Symphony Chorus, with whom he premiered The Three Kings by Peter Maxwell Davies in 1995. He also premiered that composer's A Dance on the Hill in 2005.

For five years, Hickox was Music Director of the Spoleto Festival, Italy. From 2000-2006, he was Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and is now its Conductor Emeritus. He became the Music Director of Opera Australia in 2005.

Hickox was awarded a CBE in the Honours List in 2002. His recording repertoire has concentrated on British music, in which he has made a number of recording premieres for Chandos Records. In 1997 he won the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for his recording of Britten’s Peter Grimes.

Hickox is married to the contralto Pamela Helen Stephen. They have two children.

He is President of the Elgar Society.

Hickox was married to the contralto Pamela Helen Stephen, with whom he had two children. He died aged 60 from a heart attack whilst recording Holst's Choral Symphony in Swansea