New ISM President

The Incorporated Society of Musicians has a new President.

Professor George Caird, the President for 2004-05, took over from Professor John Morehen JP at the Society's annual general meeting and gala dinner, held at the Eastwood Hall Conference Centre, Nottingham, on 18 April.

Robert Lloyd CBE became President Elect for the year. He will take over as President from George Caird at the ISM's next annual general meeting and dinner, in Cambridge, on 3 April 2005.

Biographical notes of the ISM's new President and President Elect are overleaf.

At the Society's annual Specialist Section meetings, also held in Stratford-upon-Avon during the annual conference, Philip Fowke became Warden of the Performers & Composers Section for the coming year, Sheila Gaskell Warden of the Private Teachers Section, and Professor Howard Burrell Warden of the Music in Education Section.

Presidents of the ISM (and Wardens of the Society's three Specialist Sections) serve for one year. They precede their 12 months of office with a year as President Elect (or Warden Elect), and follow it with a year as Past President (or Past Warden).

Ends 04/2004

Note to Editors: The Incorporated Society of Musicians, founded in 1882, is the UK's professional body for musicians. It aims to promote the art of music and uphold the honour and interests of the musical profession by protecting the interests of musicians, raising professional standards, and providing legal advice and other benefits to its members. Its 5,000 members include performers, teachers, composers, conductors, organists, writers and others involved in professional musical work.

Contact: Neil Hoyle, ISM Chief Executive, tel: 020 7629 4413.

After studying at the RAM (1969-72) and Cambridge University (1973-76), George Caird pursued a freelance career as an oboist, which included orchestral playing, chamber music and solo engagements. He worked with many of London's major orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and City of London Sinfonia, and particularly as a member of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields from 1984 to 1991. He has also been a member of a number of leading ensembles, notably as a founder-member of the Albion Ensemble.

George has toured for the British Council in China, the Far East, India, Egypt, Tunisia and Canada, as well as performing in concerts and broadcasts in most European countries. He has recorded for the Chandos, Nimbus, Hyperion, Meridian and Proudsound labels with solo and chamber repertoire. In July 1996 he was the director of Stage 96, a chamber music course run by La Caixa de Pensiones in Catalonia, and in September 1996 he was a juror in the Munich International Oboe Competition. George has also sat on adjudication panels for the BBC Young Musician of the Year, the Audi Junior Musician, the Shell-LSO Competition, the YCAT Awards and the Chamber Music Competition for Schools.

George has also been involved in many areas of music education: teaching, devising education programmes, coaching chamber ensembles, conducting and coaching youth orchestras, as a founding member of the British Double Reed Society, chairing the Music Education Council, and as secretary of the Federation of British Conservatoires. He was appointed as a professor of oboe at the RAM in 1984, where he became head of woodwind in 1987 and head of orchestral studies in 1991. Since September 1993, George has been principal of Birmingham Conservatoire, University of Central England. He holds a number of directorships and trusteeships, including Symphony Hall Birmingham, Arts Council West Midlands and Youth Music.

ROBERT LLOYD CBE - ISM PRESIDENT ELECT 2004-05

Robert Lloyd was born in Essex and educated at Oxford University. He began his working life as an historian, turning to a singing career at the age of 28. In 1972 he was appointed principal bass at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he sings a wide range of repertoire. At the same time, he has developed a freelance operatic and concert career, which has brought him to work with all the major opera houses and orchestras throughout the world.

Robert was the first British bass to sing the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov at Covent Garden, in the late Andre Tarkovsky's production in 1983. History was made in 1990 when the same production went to the Kirov Opera in Leningrad with Robert as Boris (this was televised internationally), and in 1991 he sang in this production again under Abbado at the Vienna State Opera. He has also sung Boris in Amsterdam and Florence.

Robert has also appeared at La Scala (Der Fliegende Holländer and Parsifal under Muti); the San Francisco Opera (Don Carlos and L'Incoronazione di Poppea); the Chicago Lyric Opera (notably Simon Boccanegra under Gatti); the Deutsche Oper, Berlin (Fidelio, Forza del Destino, Lucia di Lammermoor and Tristan und Isolde); the Netherlands Opera (Pelléas et Melisande, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal under Rattle, also Simon Boccanegra and L' Incoronazione di Poppea); and the Salzburg Festival (Pelléas et Mélisande and Les Troyens under Cambreling, Le Nozze di Figaro under Mackerras, Die Zauberflöte under von Dohnanyi and Don Giovanni under Gerghiev). His many recent appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, include Rigoletto, Parsifal, Die Zauberflöte, Aida, Faust, Romeo et Juliette, Simon Boccanegra, Les Troyens, Turandot, Otello, Fidelio and Pelleas et Melisande. Recent appearances at Covent Garden have included Don Giovanni, Parsifal, Aïda, Die Zauberflöte, Cherubin, Romeo et Juliette, Samson et Dalila, Hamlet and Simon Boccanegra. He has just completed Don Carlos at the San Francisco Opera and Benvenuto Cellini at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

Robert has appeared in concert with the Cleveland Orchestra under von Dohnanyi, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Jansons and the LPO under Haitink. With the LSO under Davis he performed and recorded Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and featured regularly in the Berlioz Odyssey at the Barbican. He is also a regular guest with the New York Philharmonic.

Robert has featured in several television productions, and was the subject of, and presented, a BBC programme on the bass voice entitled Six Foot Cinderella. He appeared in a television performance of Duke Bluebeard's Castle on BBC2, which received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for TV and won the Prix d'Italia. He has also written and presented a number of radio programmes on opera and the voice for the BBC, notably a series of 20 programmes entitled Opera in Action. He has a discography of over 70 audio and video recordings.

Robert is a visiting professor at the RCM, an honorary member of the RAM, and an honorary fellow of Keble College, Oxford.

This year Robert will be performing King Philip in Don Carlos with the Netherlands Opera under Riccardo Chailly, and a Promenade concert of Das Rheingold under Sir Simon Rattle, prior to becoming a visiting teacher in the Merola programme in San Francisco. He will then be taking up a position as senior artist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Robert was appointed CBE in the 1991 New Year Honours List.