NSSO patrons

NSSO is delighted to have two distinguished patrons - Patrick Doyle, who has supported the orchestra since 1999, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, who became associated with the orchestra in 2003.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Sir John Eliot Gardiner is one of the most exciting and versatile conductors of our time. Acknowledged as a key figure in the early music revival, he has consistently gone against the prevailing orthodoxy through his particular combination of scholarship and inspired musicianship.

Founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, his performances in concert and on record are unmistakable both for their zest and technical mastery and the highly personal readings of music from Monteverdi to Verdi and beyond.

Alongside the activities with his own ensembles, John Eliot Gardiner appears regularly as guest conductor with the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Philharmonia and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He was Principal Conductor of the NDR Sinfonieorchester in Hamburg for four years, and Music Director of the Opera de Lyon, whose orchestra he founded, from 1982 until 1988.

Gardiner has now won more Gramophone awards than any other artist, and only von Karajan has matched his achievement in winning three awards in one year. In 1987, John Eliot Gardiner received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lyon, and in 1996 he was nominated Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1992, he became an Honorary Fellow of both King's College, London and the Royal Academy of Music. In the 1990 New Year Honours List he was made a CBE, and he was awarded a KBE in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Patrick Doyle

Patrick studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and graduated in 1974. His first score was written in 1978, and he has subsequently written the music for a host of radio, television, theatre and film productions.

In 1987, Patrick joined the Renaissance Theatre Company as composer and musical director. During this time he completed a world tour of productions for high profile directors such as Derek Jacobi, Geraldine McEwan and Judi Dench.

In 1989 director Kenneth Branagh commissioned Patrick to write the film score for the Renaissance Film Company production of 'Henry V'. The song "Non Nobis Domine", from the film, was awarded the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme.

In 1990, HRH The Prince of Wales commissioned Patrick to write "The Thistle and The Rose", a song cycle for full choir, in honour of the Queen Mother's 90th birthday. During that year he also wrote the music for a Disney feature "Shipwrecked". In 1991, Patrick wrote the Golden Globe nominated score for the Paramount blockbuster "Dead Again" directed by Kenneth Branagh, with whom Patrick has continued to work on a number of highly successful productions: 'Frankenstein' (starring Robert De Niro), the Samuel Goldywn & Renaissance Film 'Much Ado About Nothing', the musical, 'Love's Labour's Lost' and the four-hour epic adaptation of 'Hamlet', for which Patrick's score was nominated for an Oscar.

Patrick has also worked extensively with director Regis Wagnier, on projects including the Oscar winning 'Indochine', the Academy Award nominated 'East West' and more recently 'Man To Man' (starring Joseph Fiennes and Kristin Scott-Thomas) which opened the 2005 Berlin Film Festival.

Patrick has also worked with prolific directors on pictures such as 'Carlito's Way' (Brian de Palma), 'A Little Princess', 'Great Expectations' (Alfonso Cuaron) 'Donnie Brasco' (Mike Newell) and 'Sense and Sensibility' (Ang Lee) which received Golden Globe, Oscar and BAFTA nominations in the 'Best Score' categories.

Patrick completed the score for Intermedia Film's "Blow Dry" in 2000, and he composed the music for the highly successful British comedy "Bridget Jones' Diary" (Working Title) in 2001 His success with highly acclaimed British productions continued in 2002 when he was asked by director Robert Altman to score his picture "Gosford Park" and again in 2003 with the score for the multi-award winning comedy 'Calendar Girls' directed by Nigel Cole.

In late 2003 Patrick scored 'Second Hand Lions', starring Michael Caine and Robert Duvall and 'Nouvelle France' starring Gerard Depardieu. 2005 saw Patrick scoring the Working Title family comedy 'Nanny McPhee' starring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, and 'Wah Wah' the highly acclaimed directorial debut of Richard E. Grant.

With Patrick's enormous success of 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' (Warner Brothers) directed by Mike Newell, his invitations for scores hasn't ceased.

Fox Entertainment invited Patrick to score their blockbuster feature 'Eragon', based on the award wining novel and proved to be an enormous box office hit around the world.

Patrick has also completed 'As You Like It', a Kenneth Branagh adapted Shakespeare play, released in 2007 and 'Par Vite Raviens Tard', a further collaboration with Regis Wargnier. Early this year Patrick scored the Roman Epic 'The Last Legion', Starring Colin Firth, for Dino De Laurentiis.

More recently Patrick has also scored 'Sleuth' for Kenneth Branagh and 'Nim's Island' for Walden Media.