Owen Rees - Director of Music

'an impressive conductor'
– Early Music Review

'Owen Rees's interpretations are revelatory and even visionary'
– BBC Music Magazine

Owen Rees is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, and Fellow in Music and Organist (Director of Music) at The Queen’s College, Oxford. He directs the Chapel Choir of The Queen’s College and also conducts the professional early-music choir Contrapunctus. His work as a conductor has taken him to the USA, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Norway, and the Netherlands, and he is increasingly busy as a leader of choral workshops. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and in several other countries. His CD recordings with Queen’s and other choirs – on the Hyperion, Signum and Avie labels – encompass a wide variety of choral repertory, and have attracted consistently high critical acclaim. Owen Rees has brought to the concert hall and recording studio substantial repertories of magnificent Renaissance music, particularly from Portugal, Spain, and England, including many previously unknown or little-known works. His interpretations of these repertories have been acclaimed as ‘rare examples of scholarship and musicianship combining to result in performances that are both impressive and immediately attractive to the listener’, and he has been described as ‘one of the most energetic and persuasive voices’ in this field. Owen Rees's work has been shortlisted for the Gramophone Early Music Award three times.

Owen Rees is very happy to discuss choral and organ-award opportunities at The Queen’s College with potential applicants at any time of year. If you would like further information, or to arrange a visit to Queen’s, please contact Professor Rees (owen.rees@queens.ox.ac.uk or 01865 279173).

For details of Professor Rees’s teaching and research, click here.