john bethell

Opera has always been one of John Bethell's chief interests and he has attended performances at many of the leading opera houses in Europe (East and West) and the Far East, Canada and America. Since he was invited to conduct at the annual conference of the National Operatic and Dramatic Association in 1966 he has been in much demand as a conductor and producer of opera, operetta and musicals. He has conducted performances for Didsbury, Gorton, Manx Gilbert and Sullivan, North Cheshire's, Rochdale, Sale, Salford, Trafford Margaretians, Urmston and was Musical Director (1972 -1988) of the Manchester University Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

For three years he was assistant conductor of the North Manchester Symphony Orchestra and has been guest conductor with the Bessies o'th' Barn, Boarshurst, C.W.S.(Manchester), Ever Ready, Fairey, Grimethorpe, Leyland and Wingates Brass Bands, the C.W.S. Male Voice Choir, Gorton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Manchester Opera Orchestra.

In 1965 Dr. Bethell accepted the post as conductor of the Flixton Townswomen's Guild Choir, with whom he has given many concerts. From this association he was invited in 1970 to become conductor of the South Manchester Federation of Townswomen's Guilds Choir, a position he relinquished in 1990. For the Townswomen's Guild he has given many one-day schools and conductor courses. In their Golden Jubilee year (1979) they made him an honorary member!

In 1971 he became conductor of the Oldham Symphony Chorus and in the same year the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Oldham Choral Society, a position he held until 1998. He is now Conductor Emeritus. In 1973 he was invited to become conductor of the annual Catenian Christmas Concerts (1973-1984) held in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester and in 1974 he assisted in the formation of an all-schools orchestra from Catholic schools in the Manchester area. In 1978 he was presented with a specially designed gold medal by the Catenian Association for his services to music.

Dr. Bethell became Artistic Director and Conductor of the Philharmonic Choir of Manchester in 1989 and in 1990 and toured with the choir to Denmark, Sweden and Finland that year. The choir has performed in both the Manchester and Salford Cathedrals and in the Concert Hall at the Royal Northern College of Music as well as at many other venues in the North West. He relinquished this position in September 2000. The choir has joined with both the Oldham Choral Society and the Manx Festival Chorus (of which John Bethell is also Artistic Director and Conductor) singing in England and the Isle of Man and at the Latour de France International Festival of Music and the Arts since its founding by John Bethell in 1993 in the village of Latour de France, in the Pyrenees, Southern France. The festival is twinned with the Mananan International Festivals and Latour is linked with Port Erin, where John Bethell now lives.

Since 1994 he has been a member of the North West Committee of the National Federation of Music Societies and each year gives full-day music courses for amateur singers. In 1999 he conducted a performance of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in New York and in November 2000 he conducted a performance in the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool of The Light of the World by Sir Arthur Sullivan to commemorate the centenary of the composer's death with a chorus drawn from many choral societies and youth choirs in the North West (see Discography).

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