Our Conductor Laureate, Howard Williams, who founded the choir in 2000, has conducted most of the leading orchestras of the UK, as well as many leading European orchestras. Howard studied Music at Oxford and Liverpool Universities and Conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, then joining the music staff of English National Opera for six years. In addition to his continuing work with orchestras at home and abroad, Howard has developed a strong and continuing association with choirs both with and away from the orchestra, including the BBC Singers, the choirs of Austrian Radio and of Bavarian Radio, the Hungarian State Choir, the French Army Male Voice Choir, and Leeds Festival Chorus.