Reginald Jacques

Thomas Reginald Jacques was an English choral and orchestral conductor. His legacy includes various choral music arrangements, but he is not primarily remembered as a composer. Jacques was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire and obtained his first degree from the University of Oxford under Sir Hugh Allen, where he later became organist and fellow of Queen's College. Dr Jacques occupied a succession of increasingly prestigious and influential posts in the music world, based mostly in Oxford and London. He conducted the Oxford Harmonic Society between 1923 and 1930 and the Bach Choir from 1932 to 1960. He founded the Jacques String Orchestra in 1936. He became music director of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts at its inception in January 1940. Kathleen Ferrier was frequently a soloist under Jacques during that time, and performed her first London Messiah with him on 17 May 1943, an event which opened up her career.

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